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I think Fifth Imperium is finished, but there's more March theoretically coming, they showed off a few chapters like a year back or so. Edit: Yep Wikipedia posted:Both John Ringo and David Weber have said that they plan on writing more Empire of Man novels, Ringo going so far as to reveal that, after We Few, three more books have been contracted for the series.[4] Weber has yet to produce a formal outline for the subsequent novels, but has stated that he will not be continuing the Prince Roger storyline. Instead the novels will be prequels, focusing on Roger's ancestor, Miranda McClintock.[5]
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Oct 26, 2015 14:40
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Especially in the third Fifth Imperium book I got the impression there'd be more books about liberating the aliens from their mad AI overlord who had been put in power during some emergency and had created a genocide machine to keep itself in power perpetually. March ended with the main baddie getting away and starting a big civil war. I suppose in both the immediate story was resolved, but neither resolved the main problems in their settings and left me wanting to see what happened next.
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Oct 26, 2015 16:04
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Darkrenown posted:I can't really see the war vs the Church lasting more than another 2 books. Maybe 3 if there's some huge setback with an Archangel showing up or church-hitler getting control of the bombardment system. But then that still doesn't deal with the Gbaba, which could be 3-6 mores books. And I wouldn't be surprised if there was a higher tech "unification war" later on, with maybe WWI/WWII tech before that with another 3-6 books. I always got the impression that the series would end with the destruction of the Temple and conclusion of the present story rather than go on into space for the Gbaba.
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Oct 26, 2015 16:36
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Darkrenown posted:The Hell's Gate books were really bad though. Like, really awful, and I like pretty much everything else Weber has done. I do wish he'd finish the Mutineer's Moon series (which oddly include a one book proto-Safehold), or if him and Ringo could finish Prince Rodger - although it seems like there's another book in progress there. Those series are pretty much finished, though? The Dahak books end with the proto-Safehold one, but the end definitely was 'an' end. The Prince Roger stuff ends with We Few, where he fights his way back to the capital planet and dethrownes the usurper (but drat that ending re: his mother was dark). e: Well poo poo, more Roger? He was getting pretty drat Marty Stu by the end, but Weber is apparently a blind spot for me so I'll have to read them...
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Oct 26, 2015 19:09
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Quick question what general separates hard Sci fi from non hard Sci fi? Is it like Star Wars vs Star Trek (though the former is more fantasy)? Also can someone recommend a good space opera book that has an audible version? I just want something that's not Dune or GRRM in Space...but something that feels like it flows organically from current history. Can be near future too. I dunno maybe Dune does, I know like next to nothing about the genre.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:27
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gfanikf posted:Quick question what general separates hard Sci fi from non hard Sci fi? Is it like Star Wars vs Star Trek (though the former is more fantasy)? It's largely a false distinction but the technical definition is that hard SF is based on a scientific concept, whereas other SF doesn't and is just taking place in a futuristic setting. So something like Niven's "Neutron Star", which is story literally about neutron star physics, is hard SF, but a story like Roger Zelazny's " A Rose for Ecclesiastes ", about a human being's reaction to an alien religion, isn't. (Both are excellent.) For good space opera look up Vernor Vinge, Fire on the Deep and Deepness in the Sky. Not sure if they have audible versions. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Oct 26, 2015 |
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Oct 26, 2015 19:34
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^^^: Yeah, that's a good concise way to say it.gfanikf posted:Quick question what general separates hard Sci fi from non hard Sci fi? Is it like Star Wars vs Star Trek (though the former is more fantasy)? I wouldn't even consider Star Trek 'hard' scifi, myself. Asking for a hard definition is asking for an argument, but the way I look at it is 'soft' scifi is stuf like Star Wars ('science fantasy') where the veneer of scifi is there but the 'rules' aren't set and you can wave stuff away with 'space magic' (the Force, Star Trek  )'Hard' scifi is all about rules and realism. Stuff like Asimov's books or scifi where the ships operate on 'real' science (rather than warp drive and antigravity) is what I consider 'hard' SF.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:35
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Hard SF is *waves hands* more realistic and *gestures wildly* has actual physics and *coughs* well ok it might have psychics if it's old enough. Sometimes you get equations and graphs actually printed in the book, and supplementary websites with JavaScript visualisation tools and more equations, and also a book about feminist struggles among shoggoths turning a mountain into a spaceship to save their word. Greg Egan. He likes his equations. Some people will tell you definitions are simple and that all works are clearly either Hard or Soft SF. Others will tell you there's a spectrum. They're all wrong, it's a label that is occasionally useful and often confusing and the cause of many arguments. Charles Stross wrote a Hard SF novel where Bitcoin is actually useful, so it's not all about the extreme realism. That's Mundane SF!
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Oct 26, 2015 19:35
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:So something like Niven's "Neutron Star", which is story literally about neutron star physics, is hard SF I always like Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg as an example of 'Hard SF' that still manages to include aliens and vast timescales.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:39
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Charles Stross almost singlehandedly killed off hard SF space opera (at least for me )by starting a series where he dealt with the impossible, causality violating difficulties of FTL travel in a way consistent with Einsteinian science, all explained clearly in a way i could understand, then refusing to finish the series because even he admitted it just wasn't workable past a certain point.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:42
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He then wrote a better version without the FTL (except as a component in scams) and with interstellar piracy. The only downside is that everyone is a robot and the first book is set a long time before the good standalone sequel and is about a sexbot. Neptune's Brood is good.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:48
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^^^: I haven't read that since someone described Saturn's Children as 'literal scifi porn' to me.  Hieronymous Alloy posted:Charles Stross almost singlehandedly killed off hard SF space opera (at least for me )by starting a series where he dealt with the impossible, causality violating difficulties of FTL travel in a way consistent with Einsteinian science, all explained clearly in a way i could understand, then refusing to finish the series because even he admitted it just wasn't workable past a certain point. Which series was that? Glancing at his wikipedia page, the only thing of his I've read is Accelerando, which from what I remember probably qualifies as 'hard' SF, but not a space opera. WarLocke fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Oct 26, 2015 |
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Oct 26, 2015 19:51
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WarLocke posted:Which series was that? Glancing at his wikipedia page, the only thing of his I've read is Accelerando, which from what I remember probably qualifies as 'hard' SF, but not a space opera.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:53
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The physics consultant on Interstellar had a decent definition of hard scifi which was fiction that kept to things that might be possible even if very improbable but doesn't actually violate what we know is definitely outright impossible. So that means you don't have to stick to near future fairly drab technologies and can go further afield you just need to be a bit clever on how you do it. Alistair Reynolds comes to mind as by the time he gets you to FTL he has at least sold the idea in a way that doesn't seem crazy.
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Oct 26, 2015 20:55
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:It's largely a false distinction but the technical definition is that hard SF is based on a scientific concept, whereas other SF doesn't and is just taking place in a futuristic setting. I would disagree with that definition. Hard Sci-fi tries hard not to violate the known laws of the universe. That means no previously unknown elements with incredible abilities (this includes particles and sub-particles), time delay for long range communications as a thing which exists, orbit as a state of motion rather than a place to be and everything that flows from there. Both Star Trek and Star Wars fail this on multiple accounts. That doesn't mean you have to have a degree in spaceship engineering to write a hard-sci-fi novel, or that you have to show exactly how you did the math. In fact, I'd argue that you don't even have to do the math so long as you stay within the framework of the universe as we understand it today. But as others have said, it's not nearly as neat a divide as some people might say. What is also important is to note that this doesn't say anything about the quality of a story. Anyone who uses realism as a mark of quality in a fiction story hasn't understood the concept of fiction. To wit: The Martian is hard sci-fi (in fact about as hard sci-fi as you can probably be without writing research proposals for NASA). A story about Mark Watney having to travel across Mars to activate the 12 pylons left by the progenitor race with his special DNA in order to power his specially constructed teleportation gate, the plans of which were granted to him by a disembodied voice in his mind), to get back home and lead humanity to the stars would be soft sci-fi.
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Oct 26, 2015 20:57
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Funny enough I might wind up in a different direction after looking at Stoss's wiki page I came across the Atrocity Archive and while clearly not space opera, seems to fit into my love of the trashy, yet fun military and gov't fights monsters in non PA settings.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:03
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gfanikf posted:Funny enough I might wind up in a different direction after looking at Stoss's wiki page I came across the Atrocity Archive and while clearly not space opera, seems to fit into my love of the trashy, yet fun military and gov't fights monsters in non PA settings. I tried to read the first book but couldn't get into it. On the other hand I liked Ringo's Princess of Wands which is basically the same thing but from a fantasy/cthulhu angle (plus it's Ringo) so what do I know.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:08
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WarLocke posted:I tried to read the first book but couldn't get into it. Ah well perhaps I'll hold off then. I will say that my entire exposure to the genre is through the Seal Team 666 series. It's a lot of fun mixing the Clancy and Monster genre. I kind of wish I didn't read the whole synopsis for The Martian...but perhaps that's a good one to consider. I guess I'm just trying to avoid situations where there is no continuity to the modern day. Hence the Duchy of Mars locked in battle with the Dukedom of Titan (might make a good CKII mod though).
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Oct 26, 2015 21:11
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Atrocity Archives is pretty decent. It's more James Bond meets Chutulu, though, if James Bond was a slightly more fit typical goon. The nerd pop culture references come hard and fast, and the overall setting loves it some snide comments about the British civil service.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:36
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ArchangeI posted:Atrocity Archives is pretty decent. It's more James Bond meets Chutulu, though, if James Bond was a slightly more fit typical goon. The nerd pop culture references come hard and fast, and the overall setting loves it some snide comments about the British civil service. Oh hmm then perhaps I may like it. That setting is still fine with me. Well nice thing with audible is I'm not boned if I don't like it.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:38
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The first book is still finding its tone a little, the "gooniness" gets lesser and lesser the more you progress in the series. It's almost like character development! Also not for this thread.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:54
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WarLocke posted:^^^: I haven't read that since someone described Saturn's Children as 'literal scifi porn' to me. Saturn's Children isn't really porn. Yes, the main character is a sex robot, but one who has no point because there are no humans around any more for her to service. It's an homage to Robert Heinlein and really has less sex in it than his usual output. Both Saturn's Children and Neptune's Brood are excellent, and the connections between them are so tenuous you don't need to read the first to understand the second if you don't want to.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:25
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gfanikf posted:Funny enough I might wind up in a different direction after looking at Stoss's wiki page I came across the Atrocity Archive and while clearly not space opera, seems to fit into my love of the trashy, yet fun military and gov't fights monsters in non PA settings. That whole series is great, don't listen to the haters. Watching Stross come up with crunchy physics, comp sci and even economics backgrounds for supernatural phenomena and creatures is a ton of fun, and he loves subverting and lampshading tropes. He also has a deep love of Cold War spy thrillers, and the first few books are loving homages (or somewhat less loving, in Ian Fleming's case). You can catch vampirism by thinking too hard about the wrong sorts of math problems! Medusa had a tumor that did weird things to the quantum observer effect, and you can replicate it at home with a 3D camera and a float-programmable gate array! Spooky chilly fog is caused by a drop in local entropy! That sort of thing. Basically, whenever Stross is writing 'fantasy', he's really writing science fiction with a thin veneer of fantasy to make it palateable to the Tor marketing department. I also think he does horror really well, so there's that.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:29
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Look at what you goons made me do.   Edit: Simon Green is in my future you crazy space opera goons! Was literally in the bookstore scanning through this thread on my phone. But Fire on the Border had to come from Amazon. BrutalistMcDonalds fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 26, 2015 23:33
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Omi-Polari posted:Look at what you goons made me do. I just finished re-reading Fire Upon The Deep for like the tenth time. Such a good book. I'm reading all of the Zones of Thought books in chronological (story) order, ending with The Blabber. I'm at the start of Children of the Mind now.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:48
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Omi-Polari posted:Look at what you goons made me do. You stop regretting Deathstalker around the third book, I promise.
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Oct 27, 2015 09:03
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WarLocke posted:^^^: I haven't read that since someone described Saturn's Children as 'literal scifi porn' to me. That person was an idiot, go read Saturn's Children. I guess you could come away with that impression if all you knew about it was the cover art for the US edition? IIRC Stross objected to it but was overruled by the publisher. gfanikf posted:Ah well perhaps I'll hold off then. I will say that my entire exposure to the genre is through the Seal Team 666 series. It's a lot of fun mixing the Clancy and Monster genre. The Laundry books are pretty great, and if you like that blend of genres you should also check out The Rook by Daniel O'Malley and Declare by Tim Powers. (Is SEAL Team 666 good? I may check it out.)
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Oct 27, 2015 13:08
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Cythereal posted:I always got the impression that the series would end with the destruction of the Temple and conclusion of the present story rather than go on into space for the Gbaba. I'm sure I've read Weber saying he was going to get back to the Gbaba... Ok, here: http://www.davidweber.net/faqs/index/page:5/series:6 quote:Q: Okay, So I'm dying to know...how long does David think that this series is going to be? And will the inhabitants of Safehold ever meet the Gbaba? August 2009
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Oct 27, 2015 13:24
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ToxicFrog posted:(Is SEAL Team 666 good? I may check it out.) Thanks for the suggestions too! Funny enough the latest book in the series has the Seals interacting with a organization like that in the Rook. Same with Declare. Declare seems like it might be a winner, even with my comment about 500 plus page multi volume books for their zombie epics. Thank you! And with this post I'll head over to the Sci-Fi thread and stop with the OT posting, but thank you everyone for your suggestions. Marshal Prolapse fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 14:29
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Declare is a legit classic.
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Oct 27, 2015 18:02
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WarLocke posted:I always like Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg as an example of 'Hard SF' that still manages to include aliens and vast timescales. The whole book is the story of like 24 hours, though. 
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Oct 27, 2015 18:10
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Captain Monkey posted:The whole book is the story of like 24 hours, though. How was the sequel? I never read it, despite hearing it was set moments after the first book.
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Oct 27, 2015 19:02
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chrisoya posted:How was the sequel? I never read it, despite hearing it was set moments after the first book. If you liked Dragon's Egg then you'll probably like Starquake. It's been a few years since I read it but it's basically more of the same, just as 'crunchy' but instead of an emerging civilization the Cheela go through Armageddon to Mad Max and then surpassing our own technology while the human ship/crew is dealing with Apollo 13 stuff I started Joel Shepherd's new book, Renegade today and something about the guy's writing style always hooks me. The Kresnov books were great but cyber-cop stuff isn't my favorite; this one is full-on space navy with politics and intrigue and I can't put it down. Also thanks for the comments on Saturn's Child, I'll hunt down a copy and give it a try.
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Oct 27, 2015 19:38
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WarLocke posted:I started Joel Shepherd's new book, Renegade today and something about the guy's writing style always hooks me. The Kresnov books were great but cyber-cop stuff isn't my favorite; this one is full-on space navy with politics and intrigue and I can't put it down. Also, between Sasha Lenayin, Cassandra Kresnov, and this series, I don't think Joel Shepherd is capable of writing a leading female character who isn't a total badass. Major Thakur is pretty drat awesome.
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Oct 28, 2015 06:22
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Mars4523 posted:Also, between Sasha Lenayin, Cassandra Kresnov, and this series, I don't think Joel Shepherd is capable of writing a leading female character who isn't a total badass. Major Thakur is pretty drat awesome. Yeah, I liked the Kresnov books, it's just that space navy stuff is inherently more cool to me than cyber-cop stuff. Plus the semi-Indian society infodumps were kind of weird (I am the whitest dude alive living in the Bible Belt, I have no frame of reference for that). Still great books though. And holy poo poo, I finished Renegade today and that Alo reveal/tease. This book definnitely qualifies as space opera. And Major Thakur is indeed an awesome character. The writing for the marines in general was pretty impressive. RIP T-Bone, no making apple cider for you.  e: Well poo poo, I googled 'Joel Shepherd Sasha' and not only does he have a fantasy series I haven't read, but there's a sixth Kresnov book? I know what I'm tracking down next... WarLocke fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Oct 28, 2015 |
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Oct 28, 2015 19:39
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WarLocke posted:Yeah, I liked the Kresnov books, it's just that space navy stuff is inherently more cool to me than cyber-cop stuff. Plus the semi-Indian society infodumps were kind of weird (I am the whitest dude alive living in the Bible Belt, I have no frame of reference for that). Still great books though. Likewise in Renegade, there's maybe one explicitly white person in the entire book. Trace is darker skinned Indian, and I believe Erik is some kind of brown.
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Oct 28, 2015 20:16
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Mars4523 posted:Likewise in Renegade, there's maybe one explicitly white person in the entire book. Trace is darker skinned Indian, and I believe Erik is some kind of brown. He also goes out of his way a couple times in the book to drive home that hardly anyone knows or cares about old racial divides. Hiro (one of Lisbeth's bodyguards) gets called out as being proud of his Japanese heritage when nobody else seems to care about that stuff. Also the ship tech is mostly crunchy. The way FTL jumps is described is a bit weird, and the 'pulse' acceleration stuff is kind of out there, but ships obey Newtonian laws, and Human ships at least use rotation for gravity instead of magic antigrav generators. Which makes the whole grapple smaller ship and use it as a hostage/shield bit near the end of the book even more ridiculous/awesome.
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Oct 28, 2015 20:21
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Mars4523 posted:Yeah, I read Renegade a few months back when it came out and thought it was great.
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Oct 30, 2015 02:45
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Miss-Bomarc posted:I'm taking a plunge here because the description on Amazon sounds like something a twelve-year-old who played all the Halo games nine times each would write. ... Kind of? I mean I can see the parallels, but the writing isn't juvenile, Shepherd is pretty good. But the universe and basic background I can see being similar if you squint just right. Started on Saturn's Child yesterday, was kind of dreading the sex stuff going in. But it was strangely clinical, which I guess makes sense considering the premise. Which is kind of depressing, actually, a whole society of robots that still, deep down, carry programming to obey/serve humanity - which is new dead and gone so what do these robots do with themselves? 
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Oct 30, 2015 18:20
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WarLocke posted:... Kind of? I mean I can see the parallels, but the writing isn't juvenile, Shepherd is pretty good. But the universe and basic background I can see being similar if you squint just right. Spoiler alert: Stross is not a very pervy writer; he tends to use sex more to illustrate a point than anything, and only when needed in service to the story. That's why the whole cover fiasco was so loving ridiculous and he was so pissed about it. Though the cover is also a callback to the cover of the novel he is semi-parodying with Saturn's Children: Friday by Robert Heinlein.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:37
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