Cardiac posted:

You really shouldn't.

Also, the synopsis sounds horrible. The Commonwealth series was OK, I guess, but the Void series was a real disappointment.
I read everything else by Hamilton, but I am getting fed up with the Commonwealth/Void universe.

systran posted:

There is a stupid evil magic alien threat led by Al Capone and Genghis Khan, can zero-g sex god Peter Hamilton stop them?

Whalley posted:

I loved how The Reality Dysfunction is what, over a quarter of a million words of what seems like fairly legit, cool, space opera bullshit that seemed like it'd go somewhere serious; there's another alien race that seems properly alien, there's all this cool stuff going on... then, to actually see where the story goes, you jump to The Neutronium Alchemist and wind up reading this really dumb poo poo about Al Capone and Genghis Khan and shapeshifting tumors and space cults and stuff. Then comes the third book and suddenly OH NO THE CAN'T LIE ALIENS SAID THERE IS A GOD, and a dude has a chat with a quantum singularity, and suddenly there's magical teleporting space stations, and even sixteen year old me, the guy with the horrible taste in everything, thought "what the gently caress did I just spend a month of my life reading."

I won't read anything else by Peter F. Hamilton, exclusively because I want to think of him as a master pranker, and I know his other books will reveal that he's really just a lovely scifi writer.

coyo7e posted:

He does good space marine stuff, Naked Dragon was good until it all turned into one man's quest to gently caress a cheerleader through time and space.

Darth Walrus posted:

The Commonwealth/Void series also suffers from a severe lack of likable characters - I gave up halfway through the second Void book because I realised there was nobody in the cast I cared about anymore. The Void series also has nothing but vague buildup happening for the entire first doorstopper-sized book. You just do not ''do'' that poo poo. I mean, at least Hamilton had poo poo get genuinely real in The Reality Dysfunction.

Darth Walrus posted:

Also, his fetish for sex scenes between underaged characters and adults crops up here and there and is creepy as ever.

Whalley posted:

I loved how The Reality Dysfunction is what, over a quarter of a million words of what seems like fairly legit, cool, space opera bullshit that seemed like it'd go somewhere serious; there's another alien race that seems properly alien, there's all this cool stuff going on... then, to actually see where the story goes, you jump to The Neutronium Alchemist and wind up reading this really dumb poo poo about Al Capone and Genghis Khan and shapeshifting tumors and space cults and stuff. Then comes the third book and suddenly OH NO THE CAN'T LIE ALIENS SAID THERE IS A GOD, and a dude has a chat with a quantum singularity, and suddenly there's magical teleporting space stations, and even sixteen year old me, the guy with the horrible taste in everything, thought "what the gently caress did I just spend a month of my life reading."

Mars4523 posted:

What the hell is it with science fiction writers and sexual deviancy?

Anyways, I can't wait for "The Rhesus Chart" to come out in... 12 hours. Stross is cool, right?

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Stross is cool. He hangs out with Krugman.

NikkolasKing posted:

I have a technical question about science fiction. I've heard of "hard" and "soft" science fiction and I was just wondering what MichaeL Crichton's Jurassic Park constitutes as? As was typical of Crichton he went into extensive detail about the science behind everything and the technology available to be used for the process. It's one reason I genuinely enjoy his novels - I never knew we had all this cool stuff in the 80s like we see in Sphere and JP.

Also I don't care what anyone else, I like Jurassic Park the book more than the movie. Fact is, it simply explains things better. And even if the long-winded technical stuff bores you, the book still has better action scenes than the movie because Spielberg, unlike Crichton, didn't realize that these are not animals, they are horrific abominations of science. Hence why dinos get shot and blown to bits in the books while God forbid a human ever hurt a dino in the movie.

I think I'm due for my yearly re-read of JP actually...

RVProfootballer posted:

I've always meant to read Stross, and finally got the chance with him putting Accelerando up for free. I like it a lot, about 2/3 of the way through. Which of his other books come recommended? His Laundry Files stuff doesn't really sound like my thing. Are the Saturn's Children books good?

systran posted:

My guess is that it would be considered more like general fiction with scifi elements since it takes place in the present day but just adds in a thing that isn't really possible.

General Battuta posted:

I got an ARC of Echopraxia. I am going to open it now. If I never post again you will know that Watts defeated my will to live.

General Battuta posted:

I got an ARC of Echopraxia. I am going to open it now. If I never post again you will know that Watts defeated my will to live.

General Battuta posted:

I got an ARC of Echopraxia. I am going to open it now. If I never post again you will know that Watts defeated my will to live.

General Battuta posted:

I got an ARC of Echopraxia. I am going to open it now. If I never post again you will know that Watts defeated my will to live.

General Battuta posted:

I got an ARC of Echopraxia. I am going to open it now.

Cardiac posted:

Don't read Misspent Youth then. The synopsis of that book is about a father who gets turned into a teenager as old as his own teenage son and then he literally ends up loving all of the teenage girls that his son have crushes on.

systran posted:

I read it back when it first came out too, but I will do a lazy bullet point summary:


-Protag is the one who has the elephant poo poo going on that really doesn't matter to the story. He is somewhat an heir of his grandmother, who is meant to be living on an asteroid in some space palace, but actually that's just an AI and the grandmother is actually on a ship made with alien technology found on phobos, and the ship has been travelling for a long time.

-Protag's sister (I think?) lives on the dark side of the moon, which is the only place where the aug doesn't function and people are free from surveillance and behavior control. Keep in mind though that the aug is portrayed more as utopic than as some kind of dystopia thing.

-Protag finds clues that his grandmother wants him to find something, so he goes on a scavenger hunt across the solar system.

-His cousins try to block his progress for some reason; I think they are really into money/business and he's just into his elephants.

-Protag goes to the stupid underwater nation and it's a really goofy scene and idea that has little to no point in the story. Meets the giant whale lady who is actually his grandma's best childhood friend (you find that out later). Whale lady also funded the super telescope that is used to look at Grandma's ship at the end of book.

-Protag goes to Mars and sees the cool evolution battle pit thing.

-Protag goes near Uranus I think where the vault with the thing from Phobos is locked up? I can't remember this part clearly other than it's where they find out all the relevant poo poo. The vault has some kind of laser defense, and it kills one of the cousins who has come around to the protag's side. No one seems too upset that the cousin is killed or that the Grandma set a laser defense up that accidentally killed one of her grandsons.

-Surprise reveal is that the Grandma is still alive and it is hinted that this new propulsion system is going to CHANGE THINGS.

holocaust bloopers posted:

Hey The Mote In God's Eye is pretty good so far. It's a quick read too. A real goddamn page turner.

Mars4523 posted:

What the hell is it with science fiction writers and sexual deviancy?

fritz posted:

What the hell is it with the people that buy that stuff?

GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:

Thanks! This helps and is probably the summary the book deserves because it's bringing memories back that mostly center around "Who gives a gently caress about elephants or this guy who cares deeply about elephants and couldn't give less of a poo poo about embarking on some epic quest" and "Man, what the hell is wrong with this family?"

Hedrigall posted:

Hey, what the gently caress is wrong with elephants?? They're majestic motherfucking creatures, you gently caress.

corn in the bible posted:

I went to the bookstore today and found a self published novel. Timgs because lovely cellphone photos.




And the magical dedication:

GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:

Listen you give me a setting with spaceships and AIs and posthumanism and of course I'm not going to give a poo poo about some dude who spends the entire time whining that he's not watching animals suck leaves off trees.

I think Kim Stanley Robinson should have co-authored the book because it shares a lot with 2312.

Srice posted:

Well from the cover pic and the dedication it looks like this religious dude enjoys his anime babes. I wish you godspeed, in reading it.

quote:

Lucretia shook her head and sighed before rising and rushing towards the bathroom, no window really broke, the electrical currents imbedded in the glass had miraculously remained intact. That meant no help, well, she could throw a pen and break one, but that would be a bit obvious.

corn in the bible posted:

I went to the bookstore today and found a self published novel. Timgs because lovely cellphone photos.




And the magical dedication:

corn in the bible posted:

RVProfootballer posted:

I've always meant to read Stross, and finally got the chance with him putting Accelerando up for free. I like it a lot, about 2/3 of the way through. Which of his other books come recommended? His Laundry Files stuff doesn't really sound like my thing. Are the Saturn's Children books good?

Fried Chicken posted:

I recommend all of them. Glasshouse is probably his most interesting but also most difficult book, as it deals a lot with identity and makes heavy use of the unreliable narrator. Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise are fun space opera. Saturn's Children is him riffing on late Heinlein and picking fights with the "libertarian space cadets" as he refers to them. The Scottish PD books of Halting State and Rule 34 are very interesting near future books. Neptune's Brood is him taking David Graeber's Debt, Bitcoin, and space opera, tossing it into a blender and pressing go (it is an attempt to figure out interstellar economics and finance, following Krugman's old paper on it). The Merchant Princes are basically developmental economics in a scifi setting with a ton of Bush era hate as would be expected from a left wing Scotsman in those years. A Colder War is imagine if the soviets and west got their hands on lovecraftian beasts instead of nukes

If you are liking accelerando for the singularity stuff he has moved away from it because he disagrees with it these days. But he still has a lot of big concepts buried in his newer stuff

corn in the bible posted:

Neurosis posted:

gently caress you.

quote:

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RVProfootballer posted:

Thanks for the Stross help! It's nice to hear there isn't really anything to avoid. For some reason I had the impression some of his books were poorly regarded, not sure why though.