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Hedrigall posted:British space opera, best space opera Examples?
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Feb 26, 2015 07:32
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Get the Lensmen and Skylark series.
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Feb 26, 2015 07:46
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jng2058 posted:Examples? Reynolds, Banks.
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Feb 26, 2015 08:20
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General Battuta posted:Reynolds, Banks. Don't forget Neal Asher. Also, please forget Peter Hamilton.
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Feb 26, 2015 11:20
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I've read E.E. Smith, Banks, and Reynolds. I'll look for Asher. Anyone else?
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Feb 26, 2015 12:00
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jng2058 posted:I've read E.E. Smith, Banks, and Reynolds. I'll look for Asher. Anyone else? Opinions differ. I really despise Asher - he's like Banks, but cheesy and fascist. Hamilton has one really good single volume work, and that is the Great North Road.
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Feb 26, 2015 20:36
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Has anyone read Michael Cobley's Humanity's Fire series? I got sorta interested in it after seeing a blurb of praise on the cover from Iain Banks. I know how much people generally respect him, so there's a better chance he wasn't a blurbwhore and the series is good.
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Feb 26, 2015 21:20
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Get the Lensmen and Skylark series. Holy crap Skylark. Rampant misogyny for all. I enjoyed Skylark DuQuesne, but man, it feels so dated  Also, somewhat casual genocide.
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Feb 26, 2015 22:44
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savinhill posted:Has anyone read Michael Cobley's Humanity's Fire series? I got sorta interested in it after seeing a blurb of praise on the cover from Iain Banks. I know how much people generally respect him, so there's a better chance he wasn't a blurbwhore and the series is good. Opinions vary. He's certainly no Banks, but I liked the first book. Still need to read the rest. Check out this recent review by someone comparing the books favourably to Banks: http://www.nimbusspace.co.uk/2015/02/humanitys-fire/
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Feb 26, 2015 23:40
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oTHi posted:Holy crap Skylark. Rampant misogyny for all. I enjoyed Skylark DuQuesne, but man, it feels so dated Oh god yes! It is dated and misogynistic and it's still a hell of a story...and I still feel bad for liking it, but goddamn is Blackie DuQuesne a great villain.
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Feb 26, 2015 23:57
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I've been reading through the Cassandra Kresnov series again. Joel Shepherd really has a thing for well meaning experts ruling the directionless masses through strength of arms, doesn't he? In Trial of Blood and Steel the heroine leads her armies to subjugate the defenseless fantasy-Christian city states (although granted those city-states were defenseless because the genocidal crusade they launched was routed) and bring them easy birth control, sanitation, and hopefully make them less genocidal. Here in book five, Kresnov participates in a counter-coup (against the legitimate chief of state, it's a long story). It would also be nice if he stopped abruptly killing of legitimately interesting supporting characters.
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Feb 27, 2015 07:27
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aaaaargh why do spacefleet battles have to be such a ghetto genre I just want some cool navy war fiction, why is that too much to ask, why can't there just be a hundred books like A Passage At Arms
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Feb 27, 2015 08:08
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Mars4523 posted:Joel Shepherd really has a thing for well meaning experts ruling the directionless masses through strength of arms, doesn't he? This is about 90% of all mil sf writers unfortunately - what you described doesn't even register as a blip on my "enlightened super-soldier shows the sheeple the error of their ways" radar.
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Feb 27, 2015 08:27
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mcustic posted:Opinions differ. I really despise Asher - he's like Banks, but cheesy and fascist. Hamilton has one really good single volume work, and that is the Great North Road. Lol. Great North Road wasn't particularly good, it was basically Hamiltons copy of Hyperion. Also, Asher is hardly fascist. He qualifies for the Bechdel test better than most authors as seen in the last book.
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Feb 27, 2015 08:37
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That doesn't mean much, Baby Got Back by the esteemed poet Sir Mixalot passes the Bechdel Test.
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Feb 27, 2015 08:50
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pseudorandom name posted:That doesn't mean much, Baby Got Back by the esteemed poet Sir Mixalot passes the Bechdel Test. Holy poo poo you just blew my mind.
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Feb 27, 2015 09:54
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pseudorandom name posted:That doesn't mean much, Baby Got Back by the esteemed poet Sir Mixalot passes the Bechdel Test. Mother of all fucks 
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Feb 27, 2015 10:13
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blackmongoose posted:This is about 90% of all mil sf writers unfortunately - what you described doesn't even register as a blip on my "enlightened super-soldier shows the sheeple the error of their ways" radar. The author's disdain for pacifism is a bit more annoying because it manifests as "Those pacifists are angry because we fought back against the assholes who came to our world and massacred our civilians" or later on "Those pacifists are angry that we invaded a world because their government was slaughtering hundreds of thousands of its own civilians". It's military science fiction and all, but still a fairly dishonest representation.
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Feb 27, 2015 18:47
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Cardiac posted:Also, Asher is hardly fascist. He qualifies for the Bechdel test better than most authors as seen in the last book. What the hell
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Feb 28, 2015 01:05
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pseudorandom name posted:That doesn't mean much, Baby Got Back by the esteemed poet Sir Mixalot passes the Bechdel Test. Mods please rename this thread, tia.
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Feb 28, 2015 05:04
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Cardiac posted:
So does Gabriele d'Annunzio. 
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Feb 28, 2015 10:38
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So I actually like Peter Hamilton, though he could tone down the boning, can anyone recommend something similar? Preferably a long series 
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Feb 28, 2015 11:51
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zokie posted:So I actually like Peter Hamilton, though he could tone down the boning, can anyone recommend something similar? Preferably a long series Hit Neal Asher and the Polity yet? Also possibly the Cassandra Kresnov series by Joel Shepherd.
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Feb 28, 2015 21:18
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Hedrigall posted:Opinions vary. He's certainly no Banks, but I liked the first book. Still need to read the rest. Thanks. That reviewer seems pretty positive about it and some of the world-building details he mentions(the Godhead, alien religious empire and Knights of the Legion of Aviators all sound like they'd contribute to a cool setting to me) makes me want to read it the next time I get into some space opera.
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Feb 28, 2015 22:45
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zokie posted:So I actually like Peter Hamilton, though he could tone down the boning, can anyone recommend something similar? Preferably a long series In fact, at one point a teenaged girl (described as very attractive) tries to throw herself at the 900 year old protagonist and he basically says "No way, you're still a kid. Ew". I can't really recall any sex scenes in the first book.
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Mar 2, 2015 21:23
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syphon posted:His newest series (Chronicle of the Fallers, follows up the Commonwealth and Void series') has very little sex. It's like he listened to the feedback.
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Mar 2, 2015 21:26
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Mars4523 posted:... why does Peter Hamilton have a teenaged girl throw herself at his 900 year old protagonist? Because he's Peter F. Hamilton, and he's super into age-gap sex.
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Mar 2, 2015 21:42
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Darth Walrus posted:Because he's Peter F. Hamilton, and he's super into age-gap sex. I haven't read all from him though. Still missing The Void trilogy, the last to Greg Mandel books and Misspent Youth, which I guess is the worst offender, since it's generally rated lowest. So in the Night's Dawn trilogy, and this is all from memory, the main protagonist who is described as a young guy, sexes up the girl in the space station, who I don't remember being described as a minor, and the upper class farmer girl, and while some of it was explicit, it didn't grab me as old man raping minor. In the Commonwealth Saga (- Misspent Youth), i don't remember any explicit sex scenes, that made go "Eeww". And again in Fallen Dragon and the first Greg Mandel book, I don't remember anything sex related either. Is it just because these scenes are somewhat explicit, is it because they don't fit in with the story or what is that makes so many people comment on it? It's been some years ago since I read the books, so it might just be my memory or perhaps I just don't really register if the sex scenes are creepy (which is a bit disturbing  ). Perhaps it's just because I read the books as pew pew action adventure and not reading to much between the lines or hope there are hints at high literature.
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Mar 3, 2015 00:45
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If you want to read a much-lauded SF author who writes tons of really offputting sex scenes, read Richard K Morgan.
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Mar 3, 2015 00:50
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Fart of Presto posted:People in this thread keep saying that, but I honestly can't remember any examples, and there are definitely no Lazarus Long moments popping up when I think back on the books. Just off the top of my head from Pandora's Star there's the wormhole tech inventor who had a whole harem of wives. And the other guy whose wife was killed and he hooks up with a 19 year old swimmer.
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Mar 3, 2015 01:39
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Night's Dawn rural world girl was 15-16 iirc, main guy was 21-22, and he was really skeezy from the start, knowing he was going to fly off and leave the poor naive bumpkin, but he just had to get some. Not a huge age difference, but completely unnecessary to the plot and still a well traveled sophisticated guy taking advantage of the totally hot young naive virgin.
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Mar 3, 2015 02:14
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darnon posted:Just off the top of my head from Pandora's Star there's the wormhole tech inventor who had a whole harem of wives. And the other guy whose wife was killed and he hooks up with a 19 year old swimmer. Can't remember the the guy/swimmer girl couple. Was there explicit sex or was it just implied? Was there a huge age difference? Was it totally out of character and situation for both of them to suddenly get it on? RVProfootballer posted:Night's Dawn rural world girl was 15-16 iirc, main guy was 21-22, and he was really skeezy from the start, knowing he was going to fly off and leave the poor naive bumpkin, but he just had to get some. Not a huge age difference, but completely unnecessary to the plot and still a well traveled sophisticated guy taking advantage of the totally hot young naive virgin. I'm wondering if it's simply the sex scenes, as in any sex scenes, that makes some people uncomfortable because "my scifi should be pure and clean" (except for all the blood and guts of course), and that has taken off to become "[writer] is a dirty old man who only writes sex scenes because he wants to have sex with young girls" and is now a semi-accepted fact?
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Mar 3, 2015 02:59
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No, Hamilton is definitely more enthusiastic about explicit sex than a lot of other writers — it's not a case of 'all sex scenes are bad', he favors them heavily and not often well. Valente wrote a whole book about sex and I don't really have the same kinds of problem with it. It's odd that you're forgetting some of these — the 19 year old swimmer-turned-reporter is a major plot element in Pandora's Star, she seduces the traumatized and rather pathetic old guy in order to manipulate him and use him as a source in her investigation. She keeps him in a hotel room and pacifies him with sex whenever he gets ideas. There's also another significant couple in the same book where the guy's a young country Scottish type and the woman's decades/centuries older and a powerful political or economic figure, I can't remember. All that said, I'm not wildly creeped out by Hamilton because the sex at least tends to be consensual and positive for both parties, even if the setup's sometimes quite skeevy. I'm sure someone will remind me of something I've forgotten, though 
General Battuta fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 03:16
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That's definitely a more reasonable way to describe his use of sex scenes and I agree that he does have a lot of them. My main beef was just the "Hamilton is a perv" when it's simply just regular sex scenes. It's probably 6-8 years ago since I read them, but yeah the reporter I remember. I had forgotten she was a swimmer. I just read Labyrinth, one of the Vorkosigan novellas, and I wonder how people felt when Miles got it on with the 16 year old super mutant soldier. Wasn't that also a smart rear end taking advantage of a naive girl?
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Mar 3, 2015 03:41
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Anyone know if Blindsight/Echopraxia is getting a third book? I can't find anything online but I may suck at looking.
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Mar 3, 2015 05:33
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He didn't want to but now I think he might be considering it. He has to have a stock of good ideas to explore and recently I think he stumbled on one. Personally I felt that the most interesting Big Idea in Echopraxia didn't get nearly enough play, and I wanted more of it.
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Mar 3, 2015 06:00
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Fart of Presto posted:People in this thread keep saying that, but I honestly can't remember any examples, and there are definitely no Lazarus Long moments popping up when I think back on the books. The Greg Mandel series has the thirtysomething main character's relationship with his teenage wife and a romance subplot between a fifteen-year-old boy and a twentysomething prostitute. Night's Dawn has the whole Joshua and Louise thing. The Commonwealth Saga has the fifteen-year-old Orion losing his virginity to an older girl. Fallen Dragon is about the main character travelling back in time to gently caress his fifteeen-year-old girlfriend. Misspent Youth speaks for itself. There's definitely a pattern, and since the British AOC is sixteen for the purpose of Romeo and Juliet cases and eighteen otherwise, it's kind of skeevy. Darth Walrus fucked around with this message at 12:13 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 12:04
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So am I the only one who's struggling a bit with The Dragon Never Sleeps? I'm maybe a 1/6 into the book, and I still don't grasp all the concepts presented. What's the deal with the Other dudes, and how the societies are connected/ the different power structures? This might be related to myself, and how I'm reading in bits and pieces while commuting to work. Too bad I that I can't really google up stuff as I'm sure to spoiler myself. Getting flashbacks from trying to power through Ulysses as a 14 year old (I'm not a native English speaker) 
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Mar 3, 2015 14:49
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Daktari posted:So am I the only one who's struggling a bit with The Dragon Never Sleeps? Try to find some kind of wiki or dictionary that won't spoil the plot. There shouldn't be major spoilers if you're careful. Also, (don't) try reading Quantum Thief and Fractal Prince as a non native English speaker. gently caress those books. The sentences felt like going around in a circle while spouting out gibberish that's SO COOL while you don't know what the gently caress is going on. I finished the first book and I felt ok with it, it was complicated but interesting. The second book, gently caress that. I want something that, while more poorly written according to some, is actually readable.
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Mar 3, 2015 14:56
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Daktari posted:So am I the only one who's struggling a bit with The Dragon Never Sleeps?
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Mar 3, 2015 15:18
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