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Fried Chicken
Jan 9, 2011

Don't fry me, I'm no chicken!

Fallorn posted:

Poor Man's Fight by Elliot Kay is pretty awesome and about a kid who joins the military so that he can pay back his loans and murders the poo poo out of evil pirates.

Yeah, I was pretty pleased with it. I had complaints with the plot going through it but they were totally reversed by the epilogue twist. Overall it could have used some editorial polish, and some more research on how democratic co-ops function, but it was a nice little book and I look forward to the sequel

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kznlol
Feb 9, 2013
Got hold of Poor Man's Fight after seeing those recommendations with the intent of holding onto it for my upcoming 8 hour layover in Oslo followed by some interminably long flight to Orlando.

Unfortunately, I started reading it early and now its finished :ohdear:

I liked it more than Terms of Enlistment, which I often see it compared to, although the ending did feel incredibly rushed. I guess if there's a sequel planned the ending would make sense, though.

iminay
Dec 18, 2012
With Cibola Burn coming out this month (The Expanse 4) has anyone had a chance to read all the novellas published in between?

The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn

Do they significantly expand on the universe or are they just fillers? They seem to be very short (30-40 pages of actual content, rest promotion for the next book)

~Edited to show book 4 as mentioned below

iminay fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Jun 6, 2014

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.
Isn't it the fourth book, not the sixth?

Milkfred E. Moore
Aug 27, 2006

'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'
I actually just finished Cibola Burn. It is the fourth book in the series. It was a very nice story, fairly tight, and of a much smaller scale than the previous works - the loss of scale is both a good and bad. Good, because you wonder how Belters (like Naomi) cope with gravity. Bad, because part of what I like about the Expanse is the politics and the navies and all that drama See, it's essentially about the perils of colonisation, of various types of rights and claims, and how civilisation is virtually meaningless when it's almost a year away. The most dangerous threat isn't a nuclear-armed warship or an alien artefact any more, but an angry dude with a gun. Even so, I'd say it was better than Abaddon's Gate, overall. The epilogue, as the Expanse series always does, sets up a very interesting hook for the next book/s.

I really like the Expanse. It's definitely up there as my favourite book series. I like the hard sci-fi feel of it, I like how it feels sometimes like a more optimistic version of Blindsight and I absolutely adore the characters and the progressive world they all live in.

Iminay, I've heard that the novellas aren't up to the same standards as the novels but that they're great if you want to see more of the world. I'm going to read The Churn shortly because I really like Amos Burton.

Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Jun 6, 2014

Spug
Dec 10, 2006

Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.

iminay posted:

With Cibola Burn coming out this month (The Expanse 6) has anyone had a chance to read all the novellas published in between?

The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn

Do they significantly expand on the universe or are they just fillers? They seem to be very short (30-40 pages of actual content, rest promotion for the next book)
Pretty much just fillers, but they're nicely written and nice interludes. The Churn is the best one and Gods of Risk the boringest one (IMO)

Milkfred E. Moore
Aug 27, 2006

'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'
If The Churn is the best I don't want to see the others. Eurgh. Very much something that would have been better served as a humorous tidbit or anecdote from present-day Amos on the Rocinante. It makes sense, given what we know of Amos, but it's also kind of boring and safe and the excitement I get from the main works never ever kicked in. Given that Amos is one of the most exciting characters to read about in the series, it's a disappointment that this book just missed the mark.

Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Jun 6, 2014

iminay
Dec 18, 2012

Milky Moor posted:

If The Churn is the best I don't want to see the others. Eurgh. Very much something that would have been better served as a humorous tidbit or anecdote from present-day Amos on the Rocinante. It makes sense, given what we know of Amos, but it's also kind of boring and safe and the excitement I get from the main works never ever kicked in. Given that Amos is one of the most exciting characters to read about in the series, it's a disappointment that this book just missed the mark.

I just now finished the Churn as well, although I quite enjoyed it, it feel this would have been better if it were thrown in as an "extra" chapter at the end of any of the main novels, or even incorporated as a flashback in the middle of the story. It gives you a good bit of extra insight into Amos but at about 1 to 2 hours of reading at max it just feels like a money grab to me. You can definitely enjoy the series without having ever read it. (You aren't missing much).

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

So, I used to be a huge Larry Niven fan, but I've sworn him off after his last short story collection (Stars and Gods) was just too lovely to keep the ghost going.

However, today I stumbled upon a two-part series he's done with Gregory Benford, Bowl of Heaven and Shipstar, about an expedition from Earth to a half-Dyson Sphere around a distant star, and the expedition's various adventures. Now I'm tempted to pick them up. I like Benford, and I think he'd be resistant to Niven's recent descent into right-wing madness (unlike Pournelle who clearly stoked it), plus it seems far enough removed from Earth that political stuff might not intervene. And of course it's Niven's return to the Big Dumb Object genre where I think he's absolutely been best.

Has anyone read either of them? Are they worth picking up or will my hopes be dashed?

(Incidentally I was surprised to see those two working together since back in the 90s Benford did a Man-Kzin War story, A Darker Geometry, that I've always heard Niven apparently hated, and is one of the few MKW stories that got explicitly overridden by a later Niven work.)

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

I'm a big fan of Niven, but only of his older classics. Ringworld Throne was trash and glancing through his recent stuff I see more desire for paycheques than uniqueness or creativity.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

I remember thinking Ringworld Throne was decent when I read it, but that was when it came out and I haven't read it since, and I literally can't remember anything that was in it. I do remember some details from Ringworld's Children and being hugely underwhelmed by it. Thinking back, maybe Saturn's Race was maybe the last decent thing he did/co-did IMO, but again I can't really remember anything from it, or have any desire to re-read it. The last thing of his I actually fully enjoyed was Rainbow Mars, and even that had some clear cracks in it.

I do definitely wish that instead of Ringworld Throne, he had done the third Smoke Ring novel as originally planned. I absolutely loved those two books.

Oh, and apparently Jerry Pournelle's daughter wrote a self-published third book in the Mote in God's Eye series called Outies? I kind of want to read it just to see how absolutely terrible it is.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

Saturn's Race I actually liked quite a bit, though it fell apart a bit at the end (but then I find most books do). Rainbow Mars I need to re-read. I didn't get much out of it, and remember only that there was a road, and jewels or crystals of some sort involved. Not an instant favorite, but I'd give it another try.

hannibal
Jul 27, 2001

[img-planes]
If you want more fun adventures in Known Space without Larry Niven craziness, read the Man-Kzin Wars anthologies. There are 14 of them, lots of different authors, and I found them to be pretty good overall.

Hobnob
Feb 23, 2006

Ursa Adorandum

Count Roland posted:

I'm a big fan of Niven, but only of his older classics. Ringworld Throne was trash and glancing through his recent stuff I see more desire for paycheques than uniqueness or creativity.

I don't think it's money he's after - if I recall the story, he's independently wealthy because his family really made out in the Teapot Dome scandal - but I do think he ran out of decent ideas long, long ago.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

Count Roland posted:

Saturn's Race I actually liked quite a bit, though it fell apart a bit at the end (but then I find most books do). Rainbow Mars I need to re-read. I didn't get much out of it, and remember only that there was a road, and jewels or crystals of some sort involved. Not an instant favorite, but I'd give it another try.

Are you thinking of Destiny's Road? I'm trying to think of a road in Rainbow Mars, and not quite clicking, though I do remember the story with the artificial jewels.

And yeah, I don't think money is as big a reason for Niven's decline as it is A) No good ideas left B) He went off the ultra-right-wing deep end. Pournelle was always there but until around 2005 or so it seemed like Niven generally didn't follow suit.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

Chairman Capone posted:

Are you thinking of Destiny's Road? I'm trying to think of a road in Rainbow Mars, and not quite clicking, though I do remember the story with the artificial jewels.

And yeah, I don't think money is as big a reason for Niven's decline as it is A) No good ideas left B) He went off the ultra-right-wing deep end. Pournelle was always there but until around 2005 or so it seemed like Niven generally didn't follow suit.

You're quite right, Destiny's Road is what I meant. I haven't read Rainbow Mars.

I rather liked A Mote in Gods Eye, the Niven Pournelle combo that is probably the best-known. It wasn't the best, but its throwback style (sorta 19th century british nautical) with interesting aliens and fairly realistic technology (no artificial gravity, especially) made it an ok read. The politics didn't bother me, but then they usually don't. I take politics in a novel to be completely fictional and a product of this fictional world; I don't try to derive what the author(s) own opinions are.

I didn't know ol Niven was independently wealthy, but then I guess I knew basically nothing at all about him. He's absolutely run out of ideas though, I can agree on that one.

ThaGhettoJew
Jul 4, 2003

The world is a ghetto

Chairman Capone posted:

However, today I stumbled upon a two-part series he's done with Gregory Benford, Bowl of Heaven and Shipstar, about an expedition from Earth to a half-Dyson Sphere around a distant star, and the expedition's various adventures. Now I'm tempted to pick them up. I like Benford, and I think he'd be resistant to Niven's recent descent into right-wing madness (unlike Pournelle who clearly stoked it), plus it seems far enough removed from Earth that political stuff might not intervene. And of course it's Niven's return to the Big Dumb Object genre where I think he's absolutely been best.

Has anyone read either of them? Are they worth picking up or will my hopes be dashed?

I rather liked Bowl of Heaven as a sort of return to the Ringworld/Rama/2001-monolith era. First contacty with super-technology alien races putting hapless humans into strange situations. And then on the complete opposite side he co-wrote a book called The Goliath Stone that looked like it might be something similar with some goof named Matthew Joseph Harrington that has cool science stuff with an alien satellite sort of thing interspersed with the most Fox Newsy, Rush Limbaugh future you ever conservawanked. Do not read. I just don't know anymore. The last Dream Park book was kind of just okay too.

But then on the gripping hand I still like a lot of his Known Space shorts and the (relatively) newer paleoCalifornia adventures The Burning City and The Burning Tower. I think there's supposed to be a third of those in the works too. They're pretty much standalone but they share an ethos with the Magic Goes Away counter-fantasy stories he wrote, in which magic existed in the real world but as a vanishing, limited and only poorly renewable resource. Native American tribes trading and profiting off of magic-laden gold and fighting off false gods might have a couple of libertarian-esque notes, but they're pretty fun and not rooted in endless evil underpinnings like the goddamn Goliath Stone.

MarksMan
Mar 18, 2001
Nap Ghost
Where would you guys recommend starting with in the "Star Wars" series of books? There seems to just be an endless number of them and spin-off's, it's a little overwhelming trying to decide where to begin.

Tiny Timbs
Sep 6, 2008

MarksMan posted:

Where would you guys recommend starting with in the "Star Wars" series of books? There seems to just be an endless number of them and spin-off's, it's a little overwhelming trying to decide where to begin.

Timothy Zahn

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

MarksMan posted:

Where would you guys recommend starting with in the "Star Wars" series of books? There seems to just be an endless number of them and spin-off's, it's a little overwhelming trying to decide where to begin.

Read the Zahn and Stover books, quit and never go back.

MarksMan
Mar 18, 2001
Nap Ghost

General Battuta posted:

Read the Zahn and Stover books, quit and never go back.


After using the powers of Google/Wikipedia, are you guys referring to the "Thrawn Trilogy":

Heir to the Empire (1991)
Dark Force Rising (1992)
The Last Command (1993)

Or these too?

Hand of Thrawn series
Specter of the Past (1997)
Vision of the Future (1998)

Other Star Wars novels
Fool's Bargain (1 February 2004)
Survivor's Quest (2004)
Outbound Flight (2006)
Allegiance (2007)
Choices of One (2011)
Scoundrels (January 2013)

Also, should I read them in any particular order? Should I read Zahn before Stover or vice versa?

MarksMan fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Jun 9, 2014

Tiny Timbs
Sep 6, 2008

MarksMan posted:

After using the powers of Google/Wikipedia, are you guys referring to the "Thrawn Trilogy":

Heir to the Empire (1991)
Dark Force Rising (1992)
The Last Command (1993)

Or these too?

Hand of Thrawn series
Specter of the Past (1997)
Vision of the Future (1998)

Other Star Wars novels
Fool's Bargain (1 February 2004)
Survivor's Quest (2004)
Outbound Flight (2006)
Allegiance (2007)
Choices of One (2011)
Scoundrels (January 2013)

Sure. Thrawn Trilogy foremost I guess. Zahn always wrote a bunch of non-Star Wars novels that are also really good.

hannibal
Jul 27, 2001

[img-planes]

Count Roland posted:

You're quite right, Destiny's Road is what I meant. I haven't read Rainbow Mars.

I rather liked A Mote in Gods Eye, the Niven Pournelle combo that is probably the best-known. It wasn't the best, but its throwback style (sorta 19th century british nautical) with interesting aliens and fairly realistic technology (no artificial gravity, especially) made it an ok read. The politics didn't bother me, but then they usually don't. I take politics in a novel to be completely fictional and a product of this fictional world; I don't try to derive what the author(s) own opinions are.

I didn't know ol Niven was independently wealthy, but then I guess I knew basically nothing at all about him. He's absolutely run out of ideas though, I can agree on that one.

If you liked Mote, there's a book called "The Prince" by Pournelle and S.M. Stirling that tells some stories from the same universe (actually four books combined into an anthology, all set in a story arc). It's excellent military sci-fi. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_%28Pournelle%29) There are also a bunch of "War World" novels set in the same universe, but I haven't had a chance to read those yet.

Regarding Zahn... the usual suggestion is Heir to the Empire/Dark Force Rising/Last Command, which were (I think?) the first of the 'modern' Star Wars books and probably the best. They published an anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire which had some interesting footnotes and commentary, but I don't think it sold well enough to justify giving the other two the same treatment, which is too bad. I actually picked up Scoundrels recently after seeing it in a B&N and I'd say it was pretty good. If you've read Zahn's other books you'll recognize his writing style right off the bat, which can be a little formulaic, but it didn't keep me from finishing it.

FuturePastNow
May 19, 2014


If you want to get into Star Wars novels, Zahn's Thrawn trilogy is definitely the place to start. Then start reading the X-Wing series. I don't remember most of the individual novels outside of those series being any good (mostly trash like Darksaber), but it's been a long time since I read those and I stopped reading new Star Wars novels about ten years ago, so I can't comment on the newer series.

Kesper North
Nov 3, 2011

EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY
I just read "Honor Among Thieves", which is a Star Wars EU book by James S. A. Corey (the writing team behind the Expanse novels). It was pretty good, I'd put it on the list (which means that it's infinitely better than the usual EU stuff).

MarksMan
Mar 18, 2001
Nap Ghost
Well since the SF Public Library is out of Downbelow Station and Young Miles, I'm going to go check out "Heir to the Empire" today since they got it at the main branch. Thanks guys

MarksMan
Mar 18, 2001
Nap Ghost
I am now starting "Heir to the Empire"; is there some sort of recognition I get now? Like have I gone "full nerd" or is this just beginner poo poo?

jng2058
Jul 17, 2010

We have the tools, we have the talent!





MarksMan posted:

I am now starting "Heir to the Empire"; is there some sort of recognition I get now? Like have I gone "full nerd" or is this just beginner poo poo?

This is like being able to identify a stop sign on your driver's test. You can't get your card without it, but you've got a lot more you need to do to qualify.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

Count Roland posted:

I rather liked A Mote in Gods Eye, the Niven Pournelle combo that is probably the best-known. It wasn't the best, but its throwback style (sorta 19th century british nautical) with interesting aliens and fairly realistic technology (no artificial gravity, especially) made it an ok read. The politics didn't bother me, but then they usually don't. I take politics in a novel to be completely fictional and a product of this fictional world; I don't try to derive what the author(s) own opinions are.

The politics of Mote never bothered me, since they made sense within the context of the book and weren't really serving as a proxy towards any real-world political debates. The CoDominium books that Pournelle wrote that served as the basis for the Mote setting however were definitely Pournelle using it as a soapbox to harp on his far-right views (social security will turn the US into a communist hellscape no different from the USSR, the ideal political system is a bizarre mix of ultra-libertarianism and a military dictatorship with some Christian theocracy tossed in). And then there's Fallen Angels that they both co-wrote (the Green Party will form a dictatorship that sends the Earth into a new ice age because global warming is actually saving the environment). I don't think you can really look at those types of works and say that the author isn't clearly trying to make a statement on current politics.

ThaGhettoJew posted:

I rather liked Bowl of Heaven as a sort of return to the Ringworld/Rama/2001-monolith era. First contacty with super-technology alien races putting hapless humans into strange situations. And then on the complete opposite side he co-wrote a book called The Goliath Stone that looked like it might be something similar with some goof named Matthew Joseph Harrington that has cool science stuff with an alien satellite sort of thing interspersed with the most Fox Newsy, Rush Limbaugh future you ever conservawanked. Do not read. I just don't know anymore. The last Dream Park book was kind of just okay too.

All I know about Matthew Joseph Harrington was that he basically wrote all of the Man-Kzin War stuff for a few years, so I guess it's not surprising that Niven would like him enough to keep on. I also recall it was during Harrington's stewardship of the MKW series that Niven actually wrote a new one which was all about a Kzin praising Reagan as the greatest warrior humanity ever gave rise to...

But that's very promising about Bowl of Heaven. I think I will definitely be checking him out.

ThaGhettoJew posted:

But then on the gripping hand I still like a lot of his Known Space shorts and the (relatively) newer paleoCalifornia adventures The Burning City and The Burning Tower. I think there's supposed to be a third of those in the works too. They're pretty much standalone but they share an ethos with the Magic Goes Away counter-fantasy stories he wrote, in which magic existed in the real world but as a vanishing, limited and only poorly renewable resource. Native American tribes trading and profiting off of magic-laden gold and fighting off false gods might have a couple of libertarian-esque notes, but they're pretty fun and not rooted in endless evil underpinnings like the goddamn Goliath Stone.

I love the Magic Goes Away books; other than Song of Ice and Fire and Chronicles of Prydain, they're the only fantasy series I've ever gotten invested in. I've always been leery of reading the Burning City series because I remember Niven saying in one of his short story collections that the whole reason he wrote the first book was because he was angry at blacks for the Rodney King riots so he wanted to write a book about how evil the rioters were, and that always set off warning signs in my head.

I guess another "recent" Niven work I've liked, even though the majority of its contents are decades old, is The Draco Tavern short story collection that was released about ten years back. I really liked the setup of it - basically, imagine the Mos Eisley Cantina, but set in Earth's first spaceport after contact is made with alien civilizations in a non-defined but near future. Each story stands on its own and is about the bartender sitting down with an alien and hearing some kind of story about their life or travels or business dealings out in the galaxy.

ThaGhettoJew
Jul 4, 2003

The world is a ghetto

Chairman Capone posted:

I love the Magic Goes Away books; other than Song of Ice and Fire and Chronicles of Prydain, they're the only fantasy series I've ever gotten invested in. I've always been leery of reading the Burning City series because I remember Niven saying in one of his short story collections that the whole reason he wrote the first book was because he was angry at blacks for the Rodney King riots so he wanted to write a book about how evil the rioters were, and that always set off warning signs in my head.

Well, that's... an inspiration I didn't expect for that book. I guess I can see it in some weird sideways view since the first part of the first book is set in a town with regular rioting due to a god of fire, with a sort of a slum-city of people who are plagued with crime and the riots because of the way the magic system works. I certainly never made any sort of :biotruths: racism connection since the main character is from there and the riots aren't usually anyone's fault. And when he gets out into the rest of the world the people he meets there aren't inherently better or more moral or any crap like that, just sometimes richer or better educated/experienced. I'll still put them up as pretty good adventure stories in a poor-kid-makes-it-big way plus it's got odd gods and magic-science.

It's not horrible in the way that Oath of Fealty wasn't horrible, despite that being a totally libertarian utopia story (written with Jerry Pournelle, of course). The plight of the cities the arcologies were parasiting were acknowledged as still suffering and the Todos Santos people were shown as turning kind of culty and insular instead of all supermen. Still a little too Galt's Gulchy overall I suppose. I've really got to get these nostalgia lenses in my glasses looked at. Pournelle's Janissary stories (pre-Mote Co-Dominion universe) got way too militarywank too, btw. Fortunately I can still turn off my subtext radar for most SF stories. Only a few can still "get" me right in my leftist bleeding heart. Eugh. I hate it when authors I like turn out to be kind of skeevy.

ThaGhettoJew fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Jun 10, 2014

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



DSauer posted:

Wouldn't be surprised if this gets asked a lot so I apologize if there's a FAQ I missed. I really like the Honor Harrington series before she started crying every other page and deep emotional impact became more important than blowing the poo poo out of things with a lot of missiles. I do sort of like the political aspects of the books though.

Are there any other authors or series I should be reading to get the same thing with less treecats?

If you can get over David Weber continuing to shove his political views in your face nonstop, the later books actually get better in those aspects, probably because they feature a lot less Honor Harrington.

FuturePastNow
May 19, 2014


Elyv posted:

If you can get over David Weber continuing to shove his political views in your face nonstop, the later books actually get better in those aspects, probably because they feature a lot less Honor Harrington.

The politics in the Harrington series have gotten less one-dimensional as new bad guys have shown up and the arc has grown more complex. On the other hand, Weber has gotten lazier about the space battles. The big battle in A Rising Thunder, that the book leads up to, occurs off-screen.

I mean, I'm reading this crap for the battle scenes. The least he can do is keep writing those.

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



FuturePastNow posted:

The politics in the Harrington series have gotten less one-dimensional as new bad guys have shown up and the arc has grown more complex. On the other hand, Weber has gotten lazier about the space battles. The big battle in A Rising Thunder, that the book leads up to, occurs off-screen.

I mean, I'm reading this crap for the battle scenes. The least he can do is keep writing those.

Oh, there absolutely is variety among the bad guys, but I feel like the good people all have basically the same ideology and are all at least somewhat competent.

Also agreed on the space battles; I think the level of technological outclassing since about book 9 is a big mistake, because for the last couple of books most of the battles have been basically the Battle of Blood River, which is just not that interesting to read about.

You know, typing this makes me wonder why I still enjoy these books, but I do. Guilty pleasure, I guess?

jng2058
Jul 17, 2010

We have the tools, we have the talent!





Elyv posted:

Oh, there absolutely is variety among the bad guys, but I feel like the good people all have basically the same ideology and are all at least somewhat competent.

Also agreed on the space battles; I think the level of technological outclassing since about book 9 is a big mistake, because for the last couple of books most of the battles have been basically the Battle of Blood River, which is just not that interesting to read about.

You know, typing this makes me wonder why I still enjoy these books, but I do. Guilty pleasure, I guess?


I don't. I gave it up after At All Costs. If you're going to do your Life of Space Nelson, at least have the guts to kill her at Space Trafalgar!

If you haven't read them yet, I do recommend Weber and White's In Death Ground and The Shiva Option. That's pretty much all space battles, and interesting ones because the two sides have different technological specialties and much different tactical and strategic doctrines. Sadly, the rest of the books in the Starfire series don't live up to the peak that are In Death Ground and The Shiva Option, but those two books are military sci-fi done well.

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



jng2058 posted:

I don't. I gave it up after At All Costs. If you're going to do your Life of Space Nelson, at least have the guts to kill her at Space Trafalgar!

At All Costs was awful, the side series focusing on the new graduates from Saganami(The Shadows of Saganami and forward) is better, as was Mission of Honor, although the space battles in those books are not very good. In the later books, there's a strong inverse correlation between how often the Honor herself appears onscreen and how enjoyable the book is for me at least, and she shows up a lot less after At All Costs.

jng2058 posted:

If you haven't read them yet, I do recommend Weber and White's In Death Ground and The Shiva Option. That's pretty much all space battles, and interesting ones because the two sides have different technological specialties and much different tactical and strategic doctrines. Sadly, the rest of the books in the Starfire series don't live up to the peak that are In Death Ground and The Shiva Option, but those two books are military sci-fi done well.

I have not, I'll look into them. Thanks!

FuturePastNow
May 19, 2014


jng2058 posted:

I don't. I gave it up after At All Costs. If you're going to do your Life of Space Nelson, at least have the guts to kill her at Space Trafalgar!

If you haven't read them yet, I do recommend Weber and White's In Death Ground and The Shiva Option. That's pretty much all space battles, and interesting ones because the two sides have different technological specialties and much different tactical and strategic doctrines. Sadly, the rest of the books in the Starfire series don't live up to the peak that are In Death Ground and The Shiva Option, but those two books are military sci-fi done well.

Crusade was good, too. I'd read it before In Death Ground and The Shiva Option, since it introduces a bunch of the characters and has its own great battles. Pass on Insurrection and the two Weber didn't co-author.

jng2058
Jul 17, 2010

We have the tools, we have the talent!





Yeah, though you can figure out what's going on and who's who without reading Crusade. I did. I picked up In Death Ground at a supermarket book shelf and read it without ever realizing there was a book before it in the series until long after I'd finished.

Crusade doesn't work as well for me because it delves into politics and religion, and I've never much cared for the way Weber handles either. Furthermore, introducing the characters aside, Crusade doesn't actually mesh well with the other novels of the series. In Death Ground and The Shiva Option are two halves of the same story, while Crusade is sort of "well there was this war before that one where some of our characters gained experience but in no other way matters now."

But yeah, of the Starfire novels, Crusade would come in third and does serve as setup (sort of) of the next two books, which are the good ones.

orange sky
May 7, 2007

So I finished the culture series and the more I think about it the more I love it. I'm thinking of reading tau zero next, what's you guys' opinion of it?

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

I enjoyed it, I read it years ago so I don't really remember a lot besides the general plot and the ending, but if you like hard sci-fi it's definitely a good choice.

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Vanilla
Feb 24, 2002

Hay guys what's going on in th
Latest edition of the Enders Game Prequel came out a few days ago...thought i'd drop that in here. Not yet got round to reading it.

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