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Onean posted:Speaking of female characters in sci-fi, does anyone have any good recommendations of series/books with a female main character that doesn't wind up in a long-term relationship? I'm tired of coming across it, but haven't had much luck finding anything in my admittedly very limited attempts of looking. While there are other characters, both human and alien, the main one throughout all the books is female, and she is pretty good at kicking rear end. Great space opera with plenty of action, strange worlds and aliens, and big dumb objects.
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Jan 25, 2016 03:59
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Drifter posted:Long Way to a Small Planet's a really fun book. It hits some emotional points and is mostly has an attitude not unlike Indiana Jones or Firefly or something. It's got a nice group story. I enjoyed the hell out of it and will definitely read the forthcoming sequel. It's not Also sprach Zarathustra or anything, but not every book has to be. The first book is quite Hunger Gamesish(based on the movie, never read Hunger Games books) with I want to say less romance angle. Book 2 quite different and is pretty straight up space opera, fleet battles, backstabbing, huge guys in armor, etc.. It is pulpy, but fun and the third and final book will be out in a few weeks so the story will be done instead of eternally adding books to the series.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:50
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Fart of Presto posted:Perhaps take a look at Gary Gibson's Shoal Sequence trilogy (Stealing Light, Nova War and Empire of Light)? Seems interesting. I'll give it a go. Thanks!
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Jan 25, 2016 06:26
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Onean posted:Joel's other sci-fi series, the two Cassandra Kresnov trilogies, doesn't quite fit what you're asking for. If you like the Spiral Wars books I'd still say give them a look, they're pretty excellent. I didn't like that the other girl, the SWAT one, ended up falling in love with her, where of course, Cassandra is 100% straight... and what was the point? Just to hit the "even the girls want her" trope and bait? I felt bad for her and it made me really annoyed with the author! I stopped after the 1st trilogy. quote:Speaking of female characters in sci-fi, does anyone have any good recommendations of series/books with a female main character that doesn't wind up in a long-term relationship? I'm tired of coming across it, but haven't had much luck finding anything in my admittedly very limited attempts of looking. Well, if you stop at book 4-ish of Tanya Huff's Confederation of Valor series (first book, Valor's Choice) , Sgt. Kerr is pretty awesome and the books are surprisingly hilarious in parts. The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie (first book, Ancillary Justice) doesn't really have any long-term relationship... Or, at least, not romantic? I mean, I guess when your warship is an AI and you have to, uh, sit in it to get to places, you sort of end up in a relationship of sorts. It's not really a very high action series though. I mean, I don't mind reading about Breq drinking tea but maybe it might not be your cup of tea? David Weber's Path of Fury (or rewritten, somewhat unnecessarily expanded In Fury Born) standalone features Capt. Alicia DeVries, and she really has no time for any relationships in between her rip roaring raging rampage of revenge across the galaxy. Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series (starting book Trading in Danger) is pretty fun. It's been a long time since I've read it but I don't think she ever really has any relationship, much less long-term (probably because everywhere she goes, something is exploding literally or figuratively). If you don't mind quests, there's one with a spook protagonist that appears to be pretty ace/aro now or if she should be in any relationship, it would be with her job/work. Katreus fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jan 25, 2016 |
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Jan 25, 2016 06:32
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Katreus posted:I didn't like that the other girl, the SWAT one, ended up falling in love with her, where of course, Cassandra is 100% straight... and what was the point? Just to hit the "even the girls want her" trope and bait? I felt bad for her and it made me really annoyed with the author! I stopped after the 1st trilogy. Yeah I can see where you get that, even though that's not what I personally think Joel was aiming for. I'd still say you should check out the second trilogy, Vanessa is quite happily married in it and her husband is more than just a stick for Vanessa to react to. quote:Recommendations I've read all of Huff's Kerr novels (and almost all of her other stuff), even the one that just came out last year. They're also favorites of mine. The others I'll take a look at, thanks, though I'm not sure what you mean in that last recommendation.
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Jan 25, 2016 09:46
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Drifter posted:Long Way to a Small Planet's a really fun book. It hits some emotional points and is mostly has an attitude not unlike Indiana Jones or Firefly or something. It's got a nice group story. I enjoyed the hell out of it and will definitely read the forthcoming sequel. It's not Also sprach Zarathustra or anything, but not every book has to be.  Onean posted:Joel Shepherd's Spiral War series. They feel very much like a Mass Effect setting. Books one (Renegade) and two (Drysine Legacy) are out, and the third is due out hopefully later this year. I'll probably check the recommendations Onean asked for if I like the not-Kusanagi ones, so I have a nice long list of stuff for now. Thanks again for the suggestions!
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Jan 25, 2016 20:16
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Katreus posted:Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series (starting book Trading in Danger) is pretty fun. It's been a long time since I've read it but I don't think she ever really has any relationship, much less long-term (probably because everywhere she goes, something is exploding literally or figuratively). I actually just finished this, after picking it up based on the recommendations in this thread, so thanks for that.  There's no real romance subplot, but at the very end she does hook up with Rafe -- although it's implied that they won't be staying together long-term, even if they'd like to, because they both have too much other poo poo to deal with.
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Jan 26, 2016 00:08
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Edmond Dantes posted:Picked this up, you have excellent taste in games so I trust you. The female lead of the RCN (or Lieutenant Leary) series by David Drake is also asexual. And going back to Cassandra Kresnov, book 4 isn't my favorite, but I found Sandy musing on what caused the failure of her relationship to be incredibly humanizing.
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Jan 26, 2016 03:09
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Onean posted:
Oh snap, another Confederation of Valor novel? I picked a good time to start rereading those. They're solid fun reads to me. I read way too many lovely 1 dollar sci-fi ebooks, so occasionally I have to reread ones that are a little less hacked together. Tanya Huff and David Drake both tend to be worth rereads every now and then.
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Jan 26, 2016 20:09
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Technically, the Confederation of Valor series is finished. But the next series (Peacekeeper 01 - An Ancient Peace) is basically a direct sequel. It makes sense but lots of authors like to shift their military character over to law enforcement (once the military career is over). Pretty stock transition. It's rarer to see when they force that poor [officer / high-ranking noncom] into administration or business, at least as a protagonist (City of Blades notwithstanding). Katreus fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 20:24
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So I've read the Vatta's War series and thought it was pretty okay, and now I'm starting in on the other series where the captain learns to ride horses or whatever and she just finished ship-shaping her luxury cruise spaceship's crew from the slackers they used to be under the old captain. She also just finished owning the bratty cousin of the yachtowner and made him a better person by tricking him into studying or whatever. I'm really not enjoying this at all...does it get significantly better or can I safely call it quits now and move on to other books and other series?
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Jan 26, 2016 20:45
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Drifter posted:So I've read the Vatta's War series and thought it was pretty okay, and now I'm starting in on the other series where the captain learns to ride horses or whatever and she just finished ship-shaping her luxury cruise spaceship's crew from the slackers they used to be under the old captain. She also just finished owning the bratty cousin of the yachtowner and made him a better person by tricking him into studying or whatever. That's the Cordelia (? IIRC) focused series, right? No, I don't remember it getting better, just lots and lots of horse talk. It was a very different tone than the Vatta's War books.
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Jan 26, 2016 23:02
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WarLocke posted:That's the Cordelia (? IIRC) focused series, right? No, I don't remember it getting better, just lots and lots of horse talk. It was a very different tone than the Vatta's War books. I enjoyed that series pretty thoroughly, horse chat or not.
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Jan 26, 2016 23:16
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mllaneza posted:I enjoyed that series pretty thoroughly, horse chat or not. I mean, I did too but it's not very much like the other books/Vatta's War at all. Also thanks to whoever mentioned that Drysine Legacy is out last page. Gonna hunt that sucker down today, I need me some more Thakur.
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Jan 26, 2016 23:25
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Drifter posted:I'm really not enjoying this at all...does it get significantly better or can I safely call it quits now and move on to other books and other series? The Serrano series? It does get better, when the protagonist changes. That's the fourth book though. The stuff that focuses on Heris does have a load of aristo-horsey stuff that can be safely skipped., I think.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:08
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Darkrenown posted:Probably surprising no one, David Weber's latest, The road to hell, was pretty terrible. I generally like Weber, but I dislike this series - I got the new book as I had nothing else to read for a long train trip. Long story short, basically nothing happens in the entire book and he also made the bold choice not to reiterate any of the previous story (the previous book came out 9 years ago) so I had very little idea of who anyone was or why they were doing the little they did. Psion posted:poo poo, the story barely started in those things. The first book was a 700 page guidebook to how magic trains work versus steam trains and how this impacts long-haul freight logistics. Those books are loving dire. I wrote that in July. Good to know Weber's nine year gap didn't change his unwavering dedication towards making the Hell's Gate series be the most boring thing in his resume.
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Jan 27, 2016 18:11
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Psion posted:I wrote that in July. Good to know Weber's nine year gap didn't change his unwavering dedication towards making the Hell's Gate series be the most boring thing in his resume. I liked it.  There actually was a decent amount of plot progression, the Sharonians get their poo poo together and Busar plots to assassinate the Caliraths. Meanwhile Olderhan, Shaylar and Jathmar finally get to Arcana Prime and there's some good stuff about how their civilization/society works, and an intense series of courtroom testimonies/court martials. And near the end Weber drops a bombshell about how Sharonian and Arcanan 'technology' interact.
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Jan 28, 2016 19:46
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WarLocke posted:I liked it. Mind spoiling it for people who will never read it haha?
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Jan 29, 2016 08:32
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Darkrenown posted:Probably surprising no one, David Weber's latest, The road to hell, was pretty terrible. I generally like Weber, but I dislike this series - I got the new book as I had nothing else to read for a long train trip. Long story short, basically nothing happens in the entire book and he also made the bold choice not to reiterate any of the previous story (the previous book came out 9 years ago) so I had very little idea of who anyone was or why they were doing the little they did. i actually checked up on weber's page recently to see whether there were any upcomings listed for the main honorverse series or the Torch spinoffs. was very perturbed to see that he's still diligently at work on goddamn Safehold books
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Jan 29, 2016 09:40
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I like Safehold! Or I did, the last 2 books have kind of dragged stuff out. All his honorverse output seems to be going into the damned treecat prequels which I have no interest in though 
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Jan 29, 2016 10:40
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The last Safehold book felt like it had half a book worth of plot. Weber missed an opportunity by not making original Nimue cold as gently caress, while Merlin was the one who'd softened a bit. She's the one who spent her "recent" life fighting an enemy vastly more monstrous than a Fantasy Catholic Church, after all.
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Jan 29, 2016 21:15
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Mars4523 posted:The last Safehold book felt like it had half a book worth of plot. Wait what the aliens from the prologue are back? Last time I checked it looked like the forever war on Safehold would go on for a couple dozen books more, can I savely come back now that the plot has started moving?
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Jan 29, 2016 23:26
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Libluini posted:Wait what the aliens from the prologue are back? Last time I checked it looked like the forever war on Safehold would go on for a couple dozen books more, can I savely come back now that the plot has started moving? Merlin and OWL built a second android body and uploaded the original, unmodified Nimue personality (the future war officer) into it. For some reason there is absolutely zero character conflict that stems out of this decision to abruptly inject a woman who died fighting a brutal alien race into a completely different civilization and conflict.
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Jan 30, 2016 01:41
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Darkrenown posted:I like Safehold! Or I did, the last 2 books have kind of dragged stuff out. All his honorverse output seems to be going into the damned treecat prequels which I have no interest in though I couldn't get past the first two books Since Weber has done (or helped do) the whole "person from more advanced time/place bootstraps a backward planet from the 17th Century to the 19th" thing a bazillion times, and since the first book wasn't his best renditions of that plotline, I was always dubious. Then when I realized he wasn't going to try anything interesting with the body-switching thing (I don't think he's really the person to handle this well to begin with) I lost interest.
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Jan 31, 2016 09:00
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Mars4523 posted:No. Oh. Too bad, back to waiting for something interesting to happen on Safehold.
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Jan 31, 2016 18:27
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I just finished Caliban's War and I guess it's my turn to go through the "I can't believe they really wasted this setup on two worthless books but good for them on the massive book deal" phase of reading The Expanse. I read summaries and reviews of books 3 and 4 and it really does sound like I can pick up the story from 5 and not be worse for wear at all. It's a pity if only because I'd love to own all the books since the cover art is gorgeous.
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Jan 31, 2016 19:39
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Antti posted:I read summaries and reviews of books 3 and 4 and it really does sound like I can pick up the story from 5 and not be worse for wear at all. Basically, this. I personally find 4 several orders of magnitude less awful than 3, but I'm in the minority.
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Jan 31, 2016 20:27
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Amberskin posted:Basically, this. I personally find 4 several orders of magnitude less awful than 3, but I'm in the minority. I'm with you.
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Jan 31, 2016 22:04
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It's almost as if it's spacey noirish horror pulp, and not space opera at all. 
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Feb 1, 2016 04:20
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Mars4523 posted:The last Safehold book felt like it had half a book worth of plot. Sadly, Weber elected to start a land war in fantasy Asia, so I think we can expect at least another book or two before anything actually happens there. He keeps hinting at actual plot, too, which is what's so frustrating-- I really wanna loving know what horrible Catholic AI is supposed to come out and wreck poo poo if someone pushes the wrong button in the Temple.
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Feb 1, 2016 06:16
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Antti posted:I just finished Caliban's War and I guess it's my turn to go through the "I can't believe they really wasted this setup on two worthless books but good for them on the massive book deal" phase of reading The Expanse. Am I really the only person that has really enjoyed every book so far? I'm half way through book 5.
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Feb 1, 2016 07:00
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Mr.Boofu posted:Am I really the only person that has really enjoyed every book so far? I'm half way through book 5. No, I enjoyed the books, too. Even the slower ones.
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Feb 1, 2016 10:27
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I find the Safehold series pretty fun as long as I skip over certain long sections where nothing happens and nothing interesting is said except fellation of the protagonists. That might be my single biggest gripe with the series for all that I own every book and enjoy them: the protagonists are too drat perfect, and the books make sure you know how perfect they are at great length. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 14:54
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Cythereal posted:I find them pretty fun as long as I skip over certain long sections where nothing happens and nothing interesting is said except fellation of the protagonists. My only (but big) issue with Abbadon's Gate is not the pace of the book. The Expanse books are not really fast-paced, but the characters usually behave rationally (in the in-universe way of doing things). The baddies do horrible things to achieve their malefic goals; the good guys do good deeds to stop the bad guys, and from time to time someone does something stupid just because... eh, reasons. Then comes book 3. And everyone does stupid and illogical things from the beginning to the end of the book. I won't go on listing them, but they should be quite obvious. The line of action that the characters follow is stupid (in-universe) and is there just to let the writers get the conclusion they want. Of course, it is legitimate (it is THEIR universe and THEIR book after all), but, honestly, you don't need a whole long book to build an immense Deus-Ex-Machina just to prepare the Universe for the follow ups. Probably, a side novelette should have been enough.
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Feb 1, 2016 15:12
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Amberskin posted:My only (but big) issue with Abbadon's Gate is not the pace of the book. The Expanse books are not really fast-paced, but the characters usually behave rationally (in the in-universe way of doing things). The baddies do horrible things to achieve their malefic goals; the good guys do good deeds to stop the bad guys, and from time to time someone does something stupid just because... eh, reasons. Erm. I thought I was replying to a post about Weber's Safehold books. 
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Feb 1, 2016 15:29
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WarLocke posted:Evan Currie's 'On Silver Wings' books are the first thing that popped into my head when you mentioned wanting 'Mass Effect-ey' sci-fi. The protagonist is a space marine and basically Commander Shepard. Drifter posted:Long Way to a Small Planet's a really fun book. It hits some emotional points and is mostly has an attitude not unlike Indiana Jones or Firefly or something. It's got a nice group story. I enjoyed the hell out of it and will definitely read the forthcoming sequel. It's not Also sprach Zarathustra or anything, but not every book has to be. Something I noticed though is that it gets "tumblr-y" (for lack of a better word) around pronouns. Rosemary makes a note about using "xe" for referring to a crewmate she hasn't met yet since it's gender-neutral, but when the ship gets boarded it goes into 2 pages of xe/xyr and a few others and one page later they use the term "headspace". Mind you, it doesn't bother me but it stuck out enough for me to notice it.
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Feb 1, 2016 15:31
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Edmond Dantes posted:I'm currently reading this and loving it so far, I'm 1/3 of the way through and I love the crew already, it does a really good job of making the alien species seem... well, alien but not in an eldritch horror way. I forget the context of the term headspace - was it along the lines of being used as 'trying to wrap my head around it?' -, but the xe/xir whatever made sense from what I remember to help emphasize the alieness of her situation, and her being relatively new to the environment and merely booklearned. She just wants to be polite and those alien symbiotes are pretty uncommon. 
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Feb 1, 2016 15:47
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Drifter posted:I forget the context of the term headspace - was it along the lines of being used as 'trying to wrap my head around it?' -, but the xe/xir whatever made sense from what I remember to help emphasize the alieness of her situation, and her being relatively new to the environment and merely booklearned. She just wants to be polite and those alien symbiotes are pretty uncommon. Yeah, the first time Rosemary uses it it's in dialogue and just to be polite, but then you get this as a book extract: quote:When meeting an individual of another species for the first time, there is no sapient in the galaxy who does not immediately take inventory of xyr physiological differences. These are always the first things we see. How does xyr skin differ? Does xe have a tail? How does xe move? How does xe pick things up? What does xe eat? Does xe have abilities that I don’t? Or vice versa? And then the other bit happens while she's translating and the author is using them outside of her dialogue. It makes sense in a way because Rosemary doesn't know the actual sex of the aliens since they're in armour, but you get stuff like this: quote:The Akarak closest to her — xyr mech-suit was trimmed with blue — ran at her, croaking the whole way. Xe shoved a gun in her face. Jenks started yelling back at the other Akaraks: “She’s unarmed, you loving animals, leave her alone…” The biggest Akarak, xyr suit nearly three times Jenks’ size, shook xyr weapon at the comp tech and pointed toward Ashby. Again, it's not like it bothers me in isolation, it reinforces the alien aspect of some of the species (not knowing if someone is male or female by just looking), but when you get it for 2 or 3 pages straight it starts becoming really weird. Oh, and "headspace" is used in "the're not talking, just sitting in a corner, in their own little headspace".
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Feb 1, 2016 16:02
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Umm, yeah...haha ha. That's pretty silly. But at least they were giant birds in power armor. The headspace thing makes sense to me - off in their own world - and I only associate 'headcanon' with Tumblr, not headspace. Anyone who uses 'meatspace' unironically or after the 90's is a jerk, though. 
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Feb 1, 2016 16:25
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Amberskin posted:My only (but big) issue with Abbadon's Gate is not the pace of the book. The Expanse books are not really fast-paced, but the characters usually behave rationally (in the in-universe way of doing things). The baddies do horrible things to achieve their malefic goals; the good guys do good deeds to stop the bad guys, and from time to time someone does something stupid just because... eh, reasons. Eh, again, it's pretty much a John Woo movie set in a Mormon generation ship plus space terrorism and some crazy alien poo poo. Pure pulpy fun - very far from Good Writing and Important Science Fiction but a drat good time regardless.
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Feb 1, 2016 16:25
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