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I've started reading Jurassic Park again because it was one of the first adult books I read as a kid, when I was like 12, and while I still think it's a great sci-fi thriller the writing is also painfully stilted. And terribly sexist. But the funniest part is how none of the characters seem to twig what's going on - like, Grant is a palaeontologist who receives funding from a genetic engineering company, is informed that said company has purchased an island in Costa Rica, sees blueprints of the island layout which looks like a large game reserve, and receives a phone call from the company's lawyer very anxious to know about an x-ray Grant received from a scientist in Costa Rica who found what appears to be a specimen of an extinct small dinosaur on a remote beach. And at no point does he point any of this together, and nor do any of the other characters involved, despite repeated clues.
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Mar 19, 2016 08:00
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AEMINAL posted:Hey alpha nerds! Looking for some recommendations. The Takeshi Kovacs books, maybe? It's less space opera and more Sci fi noir maybe, but I think you might like them.
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Mar 19, 2016 11:15
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coyo7e posted:If you do not understand how "a bunch of high-school kids are forced to run around in the woods and kill each other," has parallels to Hunger Games/Maze Runner/etc then you probably have some serious issue that I can't figure out. Did you quote the wrong post? I have no idea how this response relates to what Patrat said.
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Mar 19, 2016 11:19
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Feels obvious, but have you tried Blindsight?
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Mar 19, 2016 11:21
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coyo7e posted:If you do not understand how "a bunch of high-school kids are forced to run around in the woods and kill each other," has parallels to Hunger Games/Maze Runner/etc then you probably have some serious issue that I can't figure out. Did you only read the first 8 words of that post and extrapolate from there or something?
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Mar 19, 2016 12:48
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Patrat posted:I honestly do not know what it is about this series, I mean they are not high literature, they are far from the best books I have ever read, but they exerted some weird kind of addictive stranglehold on my mind (Red Rising) I just finished the first and I have to say it just does what it does exceedingly well, by a combination of several factors. Now I'm a jaded veteran of nerd-genre fiction (I'm 43 and have been into this crap since grade school) and it's been a very long time since a book reached in and grabbed me like this one did.
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Mar 19, 2016 12:58
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AEMINAL posted:So yeah, looking for ultra hi-tech-quantum-augment-post-human brutality in sci fi form! If you could enlighten me I'll let you copy my shitposting Gogol used just now First things that come to mind are Neal Asher's Agent Cormac series and Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
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Mar 19, 2016 13:06
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A Proper Uppercut posted:The Takeshi Kovacs books, maybe? It's less space opera and more Sci fi noir maybe, but I think you might like them. ToxicFrog posted:First things that come to mind are Neal Asher's Agent Cormac series and Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. I'm gonna submit a third vote for Tak. Start with Altered Carbon.
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Mar 19, 2016 13:32
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mallamp posted:I still haven't finished quantum thief series because it's so Hardcore, but the short stories had same type of wild ideas in more accessible form, I really liked them For more accessible singularity fiction check out Accellerando. It's a novella that follows a family through the singularity.
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Mar 19, 2016 14:26
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freebooter posted:I've started reading Jurassic Park again because it was one of the first adult books I read as a kid, when I was like 12, and while I still think it's a great sci-fi thriller the writing is also painfully stilted. And terribly sexist. Also you have multiple people seeing the mostly-intact carcass of a tiny theropod and ID'ing it as 'some kind of lizard maybe mutant???,' including a trained biologist. I'm pretty sure that was a little implausible even in the 80s, but nowadays with at least increased general quasi-dinosaur recognition across the population (thanks, Jurassic Park), that'd be downright insane.
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Mar 19, 2016 15:50
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Why are the 1st, 2nd, and 4th books of the Ringworld series available for Kindle but not the 3rd?
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Mar 20, 2016 03:39
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Drakyn posted:Also you have multiple people seeing the mostly-intact carcass of a tiny theropod and ID'ing it as 'some kind of lizard maybe mutant???,' including a trained biologist. I'm pretty sure that was a little implausible even in the 80s, but nowadays with at least increased general quasi-dinosaur recognition across the population (thanks, Jurassic Park), that'd be downright insane.
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Mar 20, 2016 04:11
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D-Pad posted:Why are the 1st, 2nd, and 4th books of the Ringworld series available for Kindle but not the 3rd? that's a pretty funny prank on ringworld readers
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Mar 20, 2016 04:31
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coyo7e posted:If you do not understand how "a bunch of high-school kids are forced to run around in the woods and kill each other," has parallels to Hunger Games/Maze Runner/etc then you probably have some serious issue that I can't figure out. And the Running Man by King is even older than that. No kids there though.
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Mar 20, 2016 18:55
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^^ The Most Dangerous Game (man v man) is a very, very old plotline. Making it a YA setting is a somewhat more recent clichee.Chairchucker posted:Did you quote the wrong post? I have no idea how this response relates to what Patrat said.
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Mar 20, 2016 19:54
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Battle Royale owes more to Lord of the Flies than Most Dangerous Game in that it was about taking something perceived as innocent (teenagers) and ripping that innocence away completely. Manga and anime in general love their dumb teenaged protagonists and once in a while they make a nod to how it's actually kind of horrifying to stick kids in combat situations, but mostly they just ignore it in favor of power fantasy. Granted, Royale was certainly about spectacle as much as any thematic exploration.
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Mar 20, 2016 20:40
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kids these days are just really into necrophilia and murdering their classmates
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Mar 20, 2016 22:41
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Has anyone read the new Tim Powers, Medusa's Web? Is it any good?
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Mar 21, 2016 00:44
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Cardiac posted:And the Running Man by King is even older than that. No kids there though. The Long Walk is kids, though, although they don't have to do the actual killing themselves...
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Mar 21, 2016 02:10
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The Long Walk is a pretty clear-cut Vietnam/conscription allegory.
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Mar 21, 2016 03:48
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edit: wrong thread sorry.
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Mar 21, 2016 04:07
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freebooter posted:The Long Walk is a pretty clear-cut Vietnam/conscription allegory.
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Mar 21, 2016 04:18
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Yeah, I honestly think The Long Walk is up there with The Mist as the best stuff King's ever written.
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Mar 21, 2016 07:22
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Has anyone read anything by Stephen Graham Jones? I've just read Mongrels, it's very good. Werewolf story, amazing voice and extremely cool.
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Mar 21, 2016 09:21
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TheWhiteNightmare posted:kids these days are just really into necrophilia and murdering their classmates Actually yes, there are pretty creepy news about messed up child murderers every now and then. Kids today are definitely more messed up than 40 years ago
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Mar 21, 2016 09:27
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mallamp posted:Actually yes, there are pretty creepy news about messed up child murderers every now and then. Kids today are definitely more messed up than 40 years ago The Leopold and Loeb murder happened in 1924.
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Mar 21, 2016 12:49
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Loads of hosed up things happened but no one was around to tell about it or write it down or plaster it all over Facebook. It's safer to be a kid today than it has ever been in human history if you are white and live in the west, at least
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Mar 21, 2016 12:58
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the_homemaster posted:Has anyone read anything by Stephen Graham Jones? Yeah, I've read his The Gospel of Z, which was one of the most entertaining and original zombie novels I've ever read, and I'm currently reading his All the Beautiful Sinners, which is a weird noir crime novel. He's a talented and diverse writer, he writes across many different genres and styles, and he also has a ton of short stories, one of my favorites of which is When Swords Had Names. It's a very dark, grim and strange fantasy story with a lot of horror elements and can be read free at this link: http://thedarkmagazine.com/swords-names/
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Mar 21, 2016 13:39
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freebooter posted:The Long Walk is a pretty clear-cut Vietnam/conscription allegory. You're going to have to explain that one to me, because it isn't clear at all.
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Mar 21, 2016 13:53
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Jedit posted:You're going to have to explain that one to me, because it isn't clear at all. It's not the way I read it, but I can easily see what he means and it does make a lot of sense, imho. Long Walk is one of my favorite King stories by far, although frankly Apt Pupil and Rage were also two of my other favorites. It's probably why I think so little of Running Man - all the others were just so loving good.
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Mar 21, 2016 14:54
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mallamp posted:Actually yes, there are pretty creepy news about messed up child murderers every now and then. Kids today are definitely more messed up than 40 years ago http://www.alternet.org/story/14581...f_serial_killer
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Mar 21, 2016 15:22
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D-Pad posted:Why are the 1st, 2nd, and 4th books of the Ringworld series available for Kindle but not the 3rd? Because no one wants it. It's absolute shite. Edit: There are 5 books, btw.
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Mar 21, 2016 16:11
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XBenedict posted:Because no one wants it. It's absolute shite. Reminds me of Octavia Butler's Survivor.
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Mar 21, 2016 18:20
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XBenedict posted:Because no one wants it. It's absolute shite. To be fair, unlike the fourth one, Ringworld Throne doesn't come with a preface stating that Niven ripped off the plot from somebody's fanfic idea on the Ringworld fans newsgroup. Still poo poo though.
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Mar 21, 2016 18:41
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Solitair posted:Reminds me of Octavia Butler's Survivor. You mean as in it's bad? I'm asking because I'm almost finished reading the entire Patternmaster ebook bundle and that one wasn't included. I'm also not enjoying it as much as Lilith's Brood, so if Survivor isn't great, I won't bother tracking it down.
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Mar 21, 2016 22:04
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I would've assumed she'd be way more into H H Holmes
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Mar 21, 2016 23:39
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coyo7e posted:I would've assumed she'd be way more into H H Holmes He was a true trendsetter, and someone who could envision and build something real.
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Mar 21, 2016 23:44
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coyo7e posted:Young men being conscripted into a competition which is almost guaranteed to be fatal ffor them, and then when the last one survives, he cannot stop walking - he never really makes it home. Plus not really realising the seriousness of what they're getting into, making new friends only to watch them die soon after, the futility of the entire endeavour, and watching their numbers being drawn out live on TV, Powerball-style. The critical difference is that the Long Walk kids volunteer while real-life soldiers were conscripted, but the spectre of Vietnam definitely looms throughout the book.
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Mar 21, 2016 23:44
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Stuporstar posted:You mean as in it's bad? I'm asking because I'm almost finished reading the entire Patternmaster ebook bundle and that one wasn't included. Butler herself kept Survivor from being reprinted with the other Patternmaster books because she became ashamed of its basic premise. Here's a review with more details. You can probably make up your mind about it with that.
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Mar 22, 2016 00:01
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Are there any good sci-fi books that take place at a time when humans have colonized the solar system but haven't yet spread beyond it?
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Mar 22, 2016 03:46
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