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Poseidon's Wake is the third of a trilogy, but in that trilogy in particular the books are very standalone so it's a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B.
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Feb 28, 2016 00:24
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Yeah, that series literally opens with the first book's protagonist watching a rail-based launch system bolted onto the side of Mount Killimanjaro test fire while he checks on his pet elephants in the Kenyan savannah, so Afro-futurism is definitely a theme in the series. Weird place to start with Reynolds all round, really. Chasm City is a good solid first Reynolds book, and also one of his best. Or House of Suns is I think the other traditional recommendation ITT.
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Feb 28, 2016 02:11
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Antti posted:Poseidon's Wake is the third of a trilogy, but in that trilogy in particular the books are very standalone so it's a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. I would still highly recommend reading them in order. Even though they're a lot more stand alone than his other trilogy, the plot and universe are still highly connected. Book 1 is Blue Remembered Earth and book 2 is On the Steel Breeze.
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Feb 28, 2016 08:05
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For those of you who have Kindles, the Kindle deal of the day includes a number of Arthur C. Clarke stories.
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Feb 28, 2016 09:20
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Deptfordx posted:If you're interested in that sort of thing, all the Starfire books just came out on Audible. I am indeed, thanks for the head's up!
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Feb 28, 2016 10:21
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NmareBfly posted:Speaking of Cibola, I'm listening to the Expanse audiobooks and it looks like the change narrators for 4 -- anyone know if the new guy is as terrible as some of the reviews make him out to be? Might have lucked out with the first three because the narrator there just nails a lot of the line delivery (especially for Avasarala in 2.) The narrator used for that book is just awful. The narrator sounded like a student reading a passage from a text book out loud in class, with that odd sort of pacing where they are figuring out the word they are saying half way through saying it. Listen to the sample though, maybe it won't bother you though. I had to return the audio and just read it.
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Mar 3, 2016 02:55
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Cythereal posted:I've started on Poseidon's Wake by Alistair Reynolds now. I've only read one book of his before, Pushing Ice, and that was a long time ago though I remember enjoying it. I'm not sure whether this is an established setting or not - sure feels like it, but as with Dark Intelligence it might also be dropping the reader in in situ. I was not expecting African culture to be a big thing in the book, or that one of the two protagonists is a happily married lesbian (bonus points for the book not making a big deal out of her homosexuality at all), and I'm interested to see where things go with her. The chapters back in Sol are much less interesting, though I'm curious how they could end up tying in to the other protagonist. Why are you starting at book #3?
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Mar 14, 2016 07:12
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Just read Aurora by KSR, while not really a space opera I thought it did a good job of turning the idea of our inevitable successful expansion to the stars on its head. Overall the book was a little depressing, and while I wasn't the biggest fan of the characterization and some of the events involved seemed forced, I appreciated the subject matter which really seemed to go against his previous works.
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Mar 14, 2016 07:39
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gohmak posted:Why are you starting at book #3? Book #1 and #2 aren't available at the library right now? I've read a couple series of standalone novels out of order because I wanted to dig in without waiting for the books to become available in chronological order.
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Mar 14, 2016 08:34
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Antti posted:Book #1 and #2 aren't available at the library right now? I've read a couple series of standalone novels out of order because I wanted to dig in without waiting for the books to become available in chronological order. They're definitely connected and I wouldn't call them real "stand alone" novels. It's a trilogy, just not really direct sequels to one another if that makes sense. That said, it's not going to ruin the series reading them backwards and since you're already started it you might as well go with it. You'll definitely have some cool moments reading the previous ones when certain things click and make sense. A friend of mine actually picked up Echopraxia by Peter Watts and read it having no idea Blindsight existed. He enjoyed it but when he was done he had a ton of questions for me. why the hell are there vampires in space? Then he read Blindsight and loved it.
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Mar 14, 2016 11:42
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Antti posted:Book #1 and #2 aren't available at the library right now? I've read a couple series of standalone novels out of order because I wanted to dig in without waiting for the books to become available in chronological order. This, also the book doesn't say it's part of a series. Same thing for Dark Intelligence. Saw an interesting looking book in the library, book doesn't say anything about being part of a series or established universe, I check it out and give it a read.
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Mar 14, 2016 13:03
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Jack2142 posted:Just read Aurora by KSR, while not really a space opera I thought it did a good job of turning the idea of our inevitable successful expansion to the stars on its head. Overall the book was a little depressing, and while I wasn't the biggest fan of the characterization and some of the events involved seemed forced, I appreciated the subject matter which really seemed to go against his previous works. Aurora is great. But KSR has believed since the 80s that interstellar expansion is unlikely/doomed - It comes up in Icehenge (1984), Jackie Boone's somber, defeated story exit in Blue Mars, and the mini-chapter about (and eventual fate of) the interstellar ships being made out of Nix in 2312. He does think that expansion throughout the solar system is interesting and worthwhile, and probably possible (hence all the books about it) - but he also feels pretty strongly that interstellar travel is a completely different kind of enterprise. I think he makes a pretty good case.
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Mar 14, 2016 17:33
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Prolonged Priapism posted:Aurora is great. But KSR has believed since the 80s that interstellar expansion is unlikely/doomed - It comes up in Icehenge (1984), Jackie Boone's somber, defeated story exit in Blue Mars, and the mini-chapter about (and eventual fate of) the interstellar ships being made out of Nix in 2312. He does think that expansion throughout the solar system is interesting and worthwhile, and probably possible (hence all the books about it) - but he also feels pretty strongly that interstellar travel is a completely different kind of enterprise. I think he makes a pretty good case. I agree with you completely on KSR's views. It also seems as if there's a larger portion of current 'hard-ish' Sci-Fi that concentrates on more "local" expansion. You have your hard-ish that treats C as a hard limit (Reynold's Rev Space, and then also more recent stuff that focuses almost entirely around the local system (Expanse, though that pushes 'hard-ish', and also McAuley's The Quiet War). Barring an amazing breakthrough, it's looking more and more that C is a hard limit, and with resource scarcity and Global Warming being more and more on people's minds, it seems to me that there's a growing trend of fatalism when it comes to actual Interplanetary SF. That's not to say there's not GREAT Space Opera and galaxy-spanning stuff still being written, but maybe it's just me that I've seen a growing trend of more pessimism when it comes to reaching outside the Solar System in the last 15-20 years by some of SF's brightest stars.
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Mar 14, 2016 19:50
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Kim Stanley Robinson actually just recently did a long interview on the Planetary Society podcast about Aurora, and talks a bit about why he doesn't think he's gotten more pessimistic: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2016/0229-kim-stanley-robinson-aurora.html
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Mar 14, 2016 20:36
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thetechnoloser posted:That's not to say there's not GREAT Space Opera and galaxy-spanning stuff still being written, but maybe it's just me that I've seen a growing trend of more pessimism when it comes to reaching outside the Solar System in the last 15-20 years by some of SF's brightest stars. And who are those brightest stars? Because I don't remember that pessimism at all. Compared with the cynical SF I remember from the 90s, today's SF is basically sunshine and lollypops.
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Mar 15, 2016 01:11
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When I think of 90's space opera I think of Gap Cycle, haven't even read it since reviews made it sound so disgusting, but I guess early Alastair Reynolds was pretty bleak? His new series is fairly positive but there aren't many FTL novels these days that's true
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Mar 15, 2016 08:42
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mallamp posted:When I think of 90's space opera I think of Gap Cycle, haven't even read it since reviews made it sound so disgusting, but I guess early Alastair Reynolds was pretty bleak? His new series is fairly positive but there aren't many FTL novels these days that's true Could be confirmation bias, of course. For example, I still vividly remember reading The Invincible by Stanislav Lem and thinking: "Man, that's bleak." Edit: I know The Invincible isn't a book from the 90s, but back then I blindly believed the edition a book was printed in was the only edition in existence. So if a book was printed in 1990, I just assumed the author wrote it around that time, too. It took me until the end of the 90s before I noticed books could come out in more editions than the one I had in my hand. Or before I noticed all those foreign authors were translated and not just really good in writing German.  From actual 90s stuff I remember the Gap Cycle by Donaldson and lots of Cyberpunk. And I read a lot of Perry Rhodan back then, which now that I think about wasn't ever really negative. gently caress. Libluini fucked around with this message at 11:53 on Mar 15, 2016 |
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Mar 15, 2016 11:47
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you want loving bleak read The Road by Cormac Mccarthy
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Mar 15, 2016 12:17
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Baloogan posted:you want loving bleak read The Road by Cormac Mccarthy Lots of sci-fi (and these days fantasy too, they have whole genre of grimdark) seems to be bleak for sake of it with overly descriptive random ultraviolence
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Mar 15, 2016 13:42
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mallamp posted:When I think of 90's space opera I think of Gap Cycle, haven't even read it since reviews made it sound so disgusting, but I guess early Alastair Reynolds was pretty bleak? His new series is fairly positive but there aren't many FTL novels these days that's true I've just read the Revelation Universe books from A.R., and I find they are not bleak "per se". For instance, The Prefect is a brilliant mistery/detective story, while Chasm City is kind a hardboiled noir story. The "main" arc depicts an aparently unwinable conflict, and some parts of the books (specially the first one) are close to Gothic narrative (the description of "Nostalgia for the Infinity" at the beginning of Revelation Universe immediately comes to mind). Actually, the R.U. series is about mankind being able to overcome the greatest difficulties, and soldiering on against all the odds . Of course, the last novel (Absolution Gap) is so bad and the ending is so lame that it can ruin the whole experience for the reader. I mean, come on... agricultural machines gone awry defeat mankind? Meh! E: mallamp posted:Road is bleak in a very touching way though, at least as a father (I guess as a son too, or a child I guess, to not be sexist) How does the book compare to the movie? (or vice-versa). I've seen the movie recently and it didn't impress me much. Perhaps because I dislike a lot Viggo Mortensen (I still think Sean Bean woud have been a much better Aragorn, but he HAD to die, of course). Amberskin fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Mar 15, 2016 |
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Mar 15, 2016 16:20
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Amberskin posted:I've just read the Revelation Universe books from A.R., and I find they are not bleak "per se". For instance, The Prefect is a brilliant mistery/detective story, while Chasm City is kind a hardboiled noir story. The "main" arc depicts an aparently unwinable conflict, and some parts of the books (specially the first one) are close to Gothic narrative (the description of "Nostalgia for the Infinity" at the beginning of Revelation Universe immediately comes to mind). Yeah, that ending destroyed the entire universe for me. It's like the author had a funny joke to tell and just wrote it in because it made him laugh, it's that bad! Now his books are a good example of why a bad ending can destroy everything you build up beforehand. That ending didn't work on so many levels I could basically spend two pages just ranting about it. (I'll spare you, though.)
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Mar 15, 2016 19:12
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For a dark, heavy space opera story, my pick for a good one is Greg Bear's Anvil of Stars. The mood whiplash of reading that after the previous book The Forge of God is incredible.
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Mar 15, 2016 20:09
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Yeah, it's a pretty impressive pivot.
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Mar 15, 2016 20:15
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Cythereal posted:For a dark, heavy space opera story, my pick for a good one is Greg Bear's Anvil of Stars. The mood whiplash of reading that after the previous book The Forge of God is incredible. The Forge of God is that story where Earth is destroyed by a black hole dropped inside it by a malevolent alien race? Is Anvil of Stars even darker than that?
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Mar 15, 2016 20:37
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Amberskin posted:The Forge of God is that story where Earth is destroyed by a black hole dropped inside it by a malevolent alien race? Is Anvil of Stars even darker than that? Yep. Anvil of Stars is about a crew of fifty or sixty people, only about twelve years old at the start, who launch into the stars on a mission of genocide against the mysterious alien race that murdered Earth in a ship built for them by another enigmatic race that they fundamentally know nothing about. It's an incredibly hosed up society, and that's even before they start encountering aliens.
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Mar 15, 2016 20:46
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Amberskin posted:Actually, the R.U. series is about mankind being able to overcome the greatest difficulties, and soldiering on against all the odds . Of course, the last novel (Absolution Gap) is so bad and the ending is so lame that it can ruin the whole experience for the reader. Obviously the author was a huge fan of 1998's hit real-time strategy game for PC and Playstation, KKND 2 and the Series 9 faction. It's a post-apocalyptic setting and Series 9 are just farm-bots that are mad about the apocalypse and the warring between the survivors loving up their crops and decide to kill everyone so they can farm in peace.
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Mar 16, 2016 11:19
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Cythereal posted:Yep. Anvil of Stars is about a crew of fifty or sixty people, only about twelve years old at the start, who launch into the stars on a mission of genocide against the mysterious alien race that murdered Earth in a ship built for them by another enigmatic race that they fundamentally know nothing about. It's an incredibly hosed up society, and that's even before they start encountering aliens. Those books are both super good, bear is probably one of my favorite authors.
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Mar 17, 2016 13:48
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Reading all the titles in this thread makes me want to write about Supernaut Captain Rocket of the Federal States of Space and his rival Cosmoman Boris Redinski of the Meritocratic Solar Soviet Republics, and how they're seduced by the multi-genitaled Spider Queen of Venus.
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Mar 18, 2016 16:33
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MrSlam posted:Reading all the titles in this thread makes me want to write about Supernaut Captain Rocket of the Federal States of Space and his rival Cosmoman Boris Redinski of the Meritocratic Solar Soviet Republics, and how they're seduced by the multi-genitaled Spider Queen of Venus. The 80's beat you to this. Usually with any combination of 2 out of the 3 elements.
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Mar 18, 2016 18:34
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MrSlam posted:Reading all the titles in this thread makes me want to write about Supernaut Captain Rocket of the Federal States of Space and his rival Cosmoman Boris Redinski of the Meritocratic Solar Soviet Republics, and how they're seduced by the multi-genitaled Spider Queen of Venus. The Sky People actually is about Americans vs. Soviets on Venus, complete with romance between the all-American astronaut and the beautiful Venusian cave-girl.
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Mar 18, 2016 23:18
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I'm on the last book of the Star Force series and this poo poo is dire. At this point I'm just taking a perverse pride in the fact that this poo poo is not gonna beat me, I am gonna bull through. 
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Mar 18, 2016 23:22
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WarLocke posted:I'm on the last book of the Star Force series and this poo poo is dire. At this point I'm just taking a perverse pride in the fact that this poo poo is not gonna beat me, I am gonna bull through. You're either a stronger or dumber man than me. Maybe both. I bailed during the first book and never looked back.
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Mar 18, 2016 23:53
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WarLocke posted:I'm on the last book of the Star Force series and this poo poo is dire. At this point I'm just taking a perverse pride in the fact that this poo poo is not gonna beat me, I am gonna bull through. Oh man that made me check to see if there's a new Ian Douglas STAR CARRIER book and there is. That series is  as gently caress. Can the STAR CARRIER America survive the EEEEEVIL Europeans?
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Mar 19, 2016 00:02
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Hughlander posted:Oh man that made me check to see if there's a new Ian Douglas STAR CARRIER book and there is.  Why do I have to like this kind of milSF?More entries on the list of stuff to read...
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Mar 19, 2016 00:39
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After reading the John Ringo thread in TFR, I've started writing a pinko liberal milSF novel as a sort of self-administered unicorn chaser. I just can't handle the sheer  -ness any longer.
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Mar 19, 2016 02:37
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Kesper North posted:After reading the John Ringo thread in TFR, I've started writing a pinko liberal milSF novel as a sort of self-administered unicorn chaser. I just can't handle the sheer Ann Leckie (kind of) beat you to it. The Ancillary books are so good.
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Mar 19, 2016 02:41
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WarLocke posted:
It's really bad. Like lost fleet bad. But they go by so fast that as long as you aren't spending money on it, it's not bad. (Also the bad Europeans was just a small part of one book, but STAR CARRIER AMERICA is in the whole thing.
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Mar 19, 2016 03:14
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WarLocke posted:Ann Leckie (kind of) beat you to it. I didn't enjoy them at all. I was bored by the first one, and so bored by the second one that I gave up after the first third or so.
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Mar 19, 2016 03:15
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Hughlander posted:It's really bad. Like lost fleet bad. But they go by so fast that as long as you aren't spending money on it, it's not bad. (Also the bad Europeans was just a small part of one book, but STAR CARRIER AMERICA is in the whole thing. Don't forget the ship is dick-shaped, and launches fighters from the tip of the mushroom head.
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Mar 19, 2016 03:28
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Internet Wizard posted:Don't forget the ship is dick-shaped, and launches fighters from the tip of the mushroom head. I was trying to... Was the c fractional fighter recon mode with a long tail too?
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Mar 19, 2016 04:17
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