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Megazver posted:I find Gaiman's space opera werewolf romance to be very overrated. That is everything I'm looking for in a book.
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Oct 26, 2014 21:13
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eriktown posted:....The gently caress? I have to assume he meant gibson.
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Oct 26, 2014 21:45
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Revelation 2-13 posted:Hey sci-fi/fantasy discussing goons. I'm coming off a three year university stint where I've read a million non-fiction books and haven't had time to read for pleasure/leisure at all, I'm looking for a recommendation for either fantasy or sci-fi to read, and I was hoping some of you geniuses might be able to help. Sounds like we have very similar tastes (loved the Hyperion Cantos and Gene Wolfe). I'll echo what others are saying, check out Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris trilogy, China Mieville (start with Perdido Street Station). I'm reading the last book in Jean Le Flambleur trilogy and absolutely loving it. I'll throw in a vote for that trilogy (Quantum Thief, Fractal Prince, Causal Angel). Hannu Rajaniemi's post singularity solar system definitely feels like something Gene Wolfe would write.
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Oct 26, 2014 21:50
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wildfire1 posted:I have to assume he meant gibson. That... makes even less sense.
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Oct 26, 2014 21:54
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Damo posted:So I just finished "The Stars My Destination", which is a book I should have read ages ago. Yeah, I wasn't all that into it until I got about two thirds in. It's still the only book I've ever reread immediately. The gutterspeak was always amazing, though. Not really a spoiler: "Take a war to make you spend. Take a jam to make you think. Take a challenge to make you great. Rest of the time you sit around lazy, you. Pigs, you! All right, God drat you! I challenge you, me. Die or live and be great. Blow yourselves to Christ gone or come and find me, Gully Foyle, and I make you men. I make you great. I give you the stars.”
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Oct 26, 2014 22:05
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Awesome speech, isn't it? Bester can loving write.
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Oct 26, 2014 22:08
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ShutteredIn posted:That... makes even less sense. First, Cardiac accidentally wrote that Gaiman writes cyberpunk, when he most likely meant Gibson. Then, House Louse gently poked fun at him for it. Then I made a hilarious joke that further developed the premise of other genres Gaiman is unlikely to write in. Then you and eriktown were terrible at reading comprehension. But it's okay. Hope this helps.
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Oct 26, 2014 22:29
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Thanks for all the suggestions, it's great. I'm making a list and getting down to it, starting with Perdido Street Station.
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Oct 27, 2014 00:11
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Kalman posted:The first Bakker book I was pointed at was so loving terrible and boring I put it down inside the first 60 pages. It is pretty much the only book I haven't finished out of stubbornness. I mean, I read the entirety of the Black Company. The first 60 pages is a pretty boring slog, that is true. Black Company survivor should be on a t-shirt. Or a plaque.
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Oct 27, 2014 00:12
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jax posted:The gutterspeak was always amazing, though. Indeed, I've always wished for more opportunities to say "Kill you filthy! Vorga!"
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Oct 27, 2014 03:11
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Cardiovorax posted:Prince of Nothing is a very special flavour of depressing that doesn't appeal to everyone. Fair warning. It's probably the best recommendation you could give to someone who couldn't get enough of Malazan. (That's also the only kind of person I would ever outright recommend Bakker to.)
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Oct 27, 2014 09:43
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Slo-Tek posted:Indeed, I've always wished for more opportunities to say "Kill you filthy! Vorga!" Siblings are great for this. My eldest brother and I have been randomly yelling, "I kill you filthy!" at each other for decades.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:42
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The Ninth Layer posted:It's probably the best recommendation you could give to someone who couldn't get enough of Malazan. (That's also the only kind of person I would ever outright recommend Bakker to.) I dunno, I love Malazan too and hated Bakker's stuff. Malazan had cool characters that you could actually root for and there was usually some glimmer of hope among the tragedy. There were some legit beautiful moments, like when Itkovian sacrificed himself for the T'lan Imass. Bakker's world seemed to be just ugliness through and through and it was hard to root for even the likable characters because by the end you knew they were just going to get poo poo on over and over.
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Oct 27, 2014 21:33
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I just finished The Martian and am almost done Echopraxia. I really liked both of them and look forward to the Ridley Scott movie adaptation for The Martian. The only other book by Peter Watts I've read was Blindsight. Any recommendations for other books by him? johnsonrod fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 09:44
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johnsonrod posted:
Starfish is good and available for free on his website. The second book is pretty okay, but the third kind of trails off the trilogy with a whimper (and lots of torture porn that starts to pop up in the second).
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Oct 28, 2014 14:59
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johnsonrod posted:I just finished The Martian and am almost done Echopraxia. I really both of them and look forward to the Ridley Scott movie adaptation for The Martian. This might sound weird, but: check out his novelization of the game Crysis 2. It's pretty good. You can also read a ton of his short stories for free on his website. "Malak" and "A Word for Heathens" are really good. I think you can read "The Island" on there too, which he was either nominated for or won a Hugo for, can't remember.
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Oct 28, 2014 15:14
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Picked up Blood Song this afternoon after browsing this thread for recommendations. Good book, would buy again. I'm only about 30 pages in yet, but already it's more interesting than most of the science fiction and fantasy I've read recently. I'm too used to Weber, so anything that doesn't drop pages of exposition in between ever minor event is a step up, really.
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Oct 29, 2014 03:36
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I don't read a lot of fantasy. The last fantasy books I have read before this last week was a series of novels by a guy named Donaldson or something like that about a man with lepper who gets transported to a blatant middle-earth ripoff and fights Evil (TM) after raping an innocent peasant just because he felt good. But... ... base on comments in this thread i decided to get "City of Stairs" and read it. Well, I enjoyed it a lot, perhaps because there were no orcs nor white-hat wizards involved. And the number of swords was kept within a reasonable limit. The "magic" bits blend very well with the narrative, and the main character is quite likeable. On the other hand, the "bad guys" are not really so bad, and the good guys are definitely not so good as it seems. In other words, I recommend anyone who wants to take a break from Science Fiction to go for that book.
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Oct 29, 2014 11:07
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City of Stairs' author got his start writing Warcraft 3 fanfiction.
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Oct 29, 2014 11:21
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Amberskin posted:I don't read a lot of fantasy. The last fantasy books I have read before this last week was a series of novels by a guy named Donaldson or something like that about a man with lepper who gets transported to a blatant middle-earth ripoff and fights Evil (TM) after raping an innocent peasant just because he felt good. But... Donaldsons books are pretty depressing honestly, but still good. It is sort of interesting how that rape scene is what people remember of the series, even though it is a minor part of the story. I always felt that scene was kinda out focus with respect to the rest of storyline. Although descriptions of the Gap Cycle by Donaldson is even more depressing when it comes to this, and one reason why I haven't read it yet. Strobe posted:Picked up Blood Song this afternoon after browsing this thread for recommendations. Good book, would buy again. I'm only about 30 pages in yet, but already it's more interesting than most of the science fiction and fantasy I've read recently. Continuing on this, how good is Tower Lord? Is it an improvement compared to Blood Song? I found Blood Song to be good, but still pretty ordinary fantasy with not that memorable characters.
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Oct 29, 2014 11:37
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I keep mixing up Blood Song and Blood Music in my head and it's really confusing.
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Oct 29, 2014 11:54
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Cardiac posted:
It's definitely a step down from Blood Song as it turns into a multiple POV sprawling fantasy and I think Blood Song's biggest strength was probably getting caught up in that single character's journey.
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Oct 29, 2014 16:01
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Cardiac posted:Although descriptions of the Gap Cycle by Donaldson is even more depressing when it comes to this, and one reason why I haven't read it yet. The Gap Cycle is really, really good but hoo boy is it ever depressing.
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Oct 29, 2014 16:11
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mllaneza posted:The Gap Cycle is really, really good but hoo boy is it ever depressing. Especially when you realize you're rooting for the violent psychopathic rapist.
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Oct 29, 2014 16:14
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Cardiac posted:
It's good but it really needed a recap section, Marvel comics style. I really had trouble remembering who was who and what was going on.
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Oct 29, 2014 17:01
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savinhill posted:It's definitely a step down from Blood Song as it turns into a multiple POV sprawling fantasy and I think Blood Song's biggest strength was probably getting caught up in that single character's journey. I think that's a fair assessment of how Tower Lord was different (and in particular note it has a lot less of Vaelin in it). But that being said, it also did a bunch of world building beyond what Blood Song had done, which I thought was all pretty interesting, and on balance I liked it about as much, albeit for slightly different reasons.
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Oct 29, 2014 17:55
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Cardiac posted:Donaldsons books are pretty depressing honestly, but still good. It is sort of interesting how that rape scene is what people remember of the series, even though it is a minor part of the story. I always felt that scene was kinda out focus with respect to the rest of storyline. The scene itself is not really memorable nor remarkable. It is not a pornographic scene at all, which in my opinion is good. The fact that it happened makes the main character (Covenant?) to carry the burden of that act for all the first book and most of the second (or was it the third?). People insists hailing him as some sort of hero from the past, and he feels himself scum for what he did. Specially when he travels around the world with the mother of the raped girl. Edit: vvv Agreed vvv Amberskin fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 19:03
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The Thomas Covenant series has bigger issues than one single rape scene that's done with in like one paragraph, really.
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Oct 29, 2014 19:06
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Cardiovorax posted:The Thomas Covenant series has bigger issues than one single rape scene that's done with in like one paragraph, really. Overuse of the word "roynish", for a start.
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Oct 29, 2014 19:43
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I recently read Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I found Cryptonomicon to be pretty boring throughout and I had trouble really identifying with the neck bearded protagonist on a quest to create a gold backed bit coin like cryptocurrency. On the other hand I did find the WWII story line entertaining, the book would have sucked a lot without it. I actually didn't mind most of the tangents Stephenson goes off on in the book and there's a ton of interesting stuff about cryptography. I thoroughly enjoyed Snow Crash. It was great how the book never takes itself seriously at all. Even naming the protagonist Hiro Protagonist. The world building was interesting and I liked the author's take on the matrix several years before the matrix was a thing. Some of the long tangents with Hiro talking to a computer program about mythology get to be a little much, and the sex scene between a 15 year old girl and a 40 something barbarian was pretty creepy, but I found the ending to be satisfying. Is there any other cyberpunk books that have the same kind of balance between gritty hopelessness and silly self awareness? I'm also wondering if anyone has read REAMDE and if it's any good.
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Oct 29, 2014 20:37
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Wooten posted:I recently read Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I found Cryptonomicon to be pretty boring throughout and I had trouble really identifying with the neck bearded protagonist on a quest to create a gold backed bit coin like cryptocurrency. On the other hand I did find the WWII story line entertaining, the book would have sucked a lot without it. I actually didn't mind most of the tangents Stephenson goes off on in the book and there's a ton of interesting stuff about cryptography. Takeshi Kovacs books. Start with Altered Carbon. They are a blast.
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Oct 29, 2014 20:41
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Zola posted:I picked it up on Kindle and during that chapter, all I could think of was Bleach and Naruto and Pokemon when they explain stuff for the TV audience. I kept stopping to laugh at it. Now that I'm past it, it's not bad at all. General Battuta posted:The wish fulfillment that people react to in Dresden isn't the wish for a great happy life full of adoring women and success. It's the construct of a world in which IT nerds are actually heroes who suffer under the tyranny of HR bureaucrats who refuse to understand their true gifts, bravely holding the world together against a class of problems the normals just don't understand. 
coyo7e fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 20:59
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Wooten posted:I recently read Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I found Cryptonomicon to be pretty boring throughout and I had trouble really identifying with the neck bearded protagonist on a quest to create a gold backed bit coin like cryptocurrency. On the other hand I did find the WWII story line entertaining, the book would have sucked a lot without it. I actually didn't mind most of the tangents Stephenson goes off on in the book and there's a ton of interesting stuff about cryptography. If you like Snow Crash, you should probably read Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling and if you've not read William Gibson's books, read Neuromancer and go from there. I like REAMDE, but I'm pretty easily entertained and generally like all Neal Stephenson's novels - what some people see as long winded tangents I like as it brings interesting semi-random detail to the world building, which brings me to recommend The Baroque Cycle - 3 reasonably massive books, at a bit better than a million words. Set in a somewhat similar timeframe, I also think The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling is another entertaining alternate past history/fictional world.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:28
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Bruce Bethke's Headcrash might be up your alley.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:33
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Kalman posted:The first Bakker book I was pointed at was so loving terrible and boring I put it down inside the first 60 pages. It is pretty much the only book I haven't finished out of stubbornness. I mean, I read the entirety of the Black Company.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:57
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coyo7e posted:Well Black Company is written at about a 6th grade reading level.. And Bakker's stuff is not. That doesn't make it not terrible. Bakker fails at the single most important thing in fiction, which is making me want to keep reading the story. You have an uninteresting, unlikable protagonist. There might be a detailed world in there but the opening utterly fails at telling me much about it (and at making me want to find out about it.) Your reader should not be thinking "why bother".
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Oct 30, 2014 00:05
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I'll second the recommendation of The Baroque Cycle. We have a Neal Stephenson thread if you're interested in his stuff.
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Oct 30, 2014 00:21
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General Battuta posted:The wish fulfillment that people react to in Dresden isn't the wish for a great happy life full of adoring women and success. It's the construct of a world in which IT nerds are actually heroes who suffer under the tyranny of HR bureaucrats who refuse to understand their true gifts, bravely holding the world together against a class of problems the normals just don't understand. There's like two nouns you'd have to replace in this quote to cover an extremely wide range of fiction novels.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:23
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While reading Abaddon's Gate I finally had the  realization that James Holden really is heavily based on Holden Cauffield - the entire utopian wanna-be rebel who seems to consistently have no awareness of what he's doing outside of desperately wanting to be a martyr/hero. At first I was like "ha ha, his name is Holden!" and then in every novel he does the same poo poo and never really seems to learn from it, while everyone around him is telling him to grow the gently caress up.Kalman posted:That doesn't make it not terrible. Bakker fails at the single most important thing in fiction, which is making me want to keep reading the story. You have an uninteresting, unlikable protagonist. There might be a detailed world in there but the opening utterly fails at telling me much about it (and at making me want to find out about it.) Your reader should not be thinking "why bother". Is Kellhus really the protagonist? And 60 pages in was what, basically the sequence where he sublimates the drunk trapper, iirc. You didn't even meet Achamian, Cnaiur, or Esmenet, I think.. The conflicts between characters (especially around their women, which probably is a :trigger warning: for the Bakker RAPE RAPE RAPE crowd,) are what drives it, and aren't really any characters but one who's really just kind of a cipher, that far in. Cnaiur, shitbird-crazy Breaker of Men and Horses, is also the best foil for an unlikable superman that I could imagine.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:45
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coyo7e posted:While reading Abaddon's Gate I finally had the Well apparently I'm really oblivious.  Totally makes sense now. Going to work my way through the third one after I finish City of Stairs.
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Oct 30, 2014 02:08
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