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Yeah, I read Three Men more than a couple times. Anyway, would that one be Doomsday Book? That's the only thing of hers sounding medieval. Leave it to me to secure access to everything but that one.
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Apr 20, 2016 20:34
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, I read Three Men more than a couple times. Anyway, would that one be Doomsday Book? That's the only thing of hers sounding medieval. Leave it to me to secure access to everything but that one. Yep, that's the first one in the series, as well as the one that won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
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Apr 20, 2016 20:42
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I got bored of that one. Say nothing was hilarious tho
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Apr 20, 2016 20:52
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ToxicFrog posted:C.J. Cherryh writes a lot of aliens, of varying levels of strangeness. And her books are just generally excellent. Speaking of which, I have (or at least used to have, fifteen years and several moves ago) a paperback "Chanur omnibus" with the first three of those novels in it. Only problem there is that the first book is basically standalone while books 2-4 form a pretty tight trilogy, but of course #4 wasn't included.
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Apr 20, 2016 21:40
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anilEhilated posted:Anything standing out of the works of Connie Willis? I loved To Say Nothing Of The Dog and wonder where should I go next. 
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Apr 20, 2016 21:55
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Turdis McWordis posted:I'm pretty sure that's the one where he bangs a 20 year old voluptuous red head literally half his age. Think she was a fair bit younger than that. And I think that the third book features a major romance subplot between a fifteen-year-old corporate heir and the twentysomething prostitute his dad bought for him. Hamilton.txt.
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Apr 20, 2016 21:59
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Peter F Hamilton My name is Peter F Hamilton And there's a million skeezy sex scenes in my books Just you wait, just you wait
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Apr 20, 2016 22:14
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Darth Walrus posted:And I think that the third book features a major romance subplot between a fifteen-year-old corporate heir and the twentysomething prostitute his dad bought for him. Sounds like the stand-alone Fallen Dragon. And the dad slept with the prostitute too. It's too bad, cause it's not a bad book otherwise. The Great North Road, I feel, is the best Hamilton. Mostly because I can't recall any super-skeevy sex scenes in it.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:45
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Darth Walrus posted:Think she was a fair bit younger than that. I find it incredible that I managed to plow through the Commonwealth Saga.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:47
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thetechnoloser posted:Sounds like the stand-alone Fallen Dragon. And the dad slept with the prostitute too. It's too bad, cause it's not a bad book otherwise. Nope, happened in the Greg Mandel series, too, with a much bigger age-gap. Kid had a zeppelin playground.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:48
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Groke posted:Speaking of which, I have (or at least used to have, fifteen years and several moves ago) a paperback "Chanur omnibus" with the first three of those novels in it. Only problem there is that the first book is basically standalone while books 2-4 form a pretty tight trilogy, but of course #4 wasn't included. Yeah, the Chanur books are basically prologue, main plot split into three books, epilogue. IIRC they did that without consulting Cherryh and she was not pleased when she found out.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:49
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Read Austin Grossman's (who I always want to conflate with Lev Grossman) Soon I Will Be Invincible. It's actually not that bad for what it is. It's not a full-on deconstruction of super heroes like Watchmen, but the cheesyness inherent in the premise is sort of leavened with more 'realistic' approaches (the villain opines that his heavy cape is a bad idea when he has to run, the cyborg character revealing that she basically lives her life dreading the day she will no longer be able to afford her special diet/anti-rejection medication, etc). Going to dive into another of his books, You, next, which I gather is some sort of game-dev techno-thriller. We'll see how it compares to Reamde, I guess.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:57
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Read Effinger's When Gravity Fails after years of putting it off and hnnnnng so good, just go read it if you at all like cyberpunk and/or mystery sci-fi. And now I have two more books in the series to read yay 
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Apr 21, 2016 00:23
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Soon I Will Be Invincible was fun. If you end up liking Grossman maybe give Crooked a try --it's a book that earnestly combines Nixon's biography with all the high falutin old god lovecraft stuff that's all the rage nowadays. I liked it, but it was also a little bit lighter on the sorcery and existential threat than I would've liked. Probably a slam dunk if you enjoy American history and goofy urban fantasy though.
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Apr 21, 2016 00:26
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ulmont posted:1) I think it's clear the society is not gender equal. ulmont posted:2) That series is making me miss Patrick Rothfuss' writing.
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Apr 21, 2016 02:31
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WarLocke posted:Read Austin Grossman's (who I always want to conflate with Lev Grossman) Soon I Will Be Invincible. RoboCicero posted:Soon I Will Be Invincible was fun. I'm a 1. It's superheroes in prose, which is not common. Most genre don't have much trouble hopping between media; this one (until the recent tv/film boom) seems to be stuck in comics for some reason. I'm not even a superheroes fan, really, I just think it feels pretty novel (heh) in a book. 2. From his own POV, Doctor Impossible is a misunderstood genius with legitimate grievances and a sense of real pathos. He's insane, sure, but he feels like a crazy person. From Fatale's perspective, he's a hammy, scenery chewing lunatic, straight from the pages of a pulp golden age comic. More an incomprehensible force of nature than a real human being. The trick is his dialogue- which is the same in both POVs- is perfectly consistent with both perspectives on the character at all times. WHO DARES! I think this might have been what Grossman was aiming for with the entire book: indistinguishable from the source material wherever it breaks the surface, with something more nuanced layered underneath. It doesn't come together in other places because, well, I think the book just isn't long enough. The lack of space means that too much of the supporting characters and the setting have to be a pastiche- the little flourishes end up not adding depth but instead coming across as trite, tired little "gotcha" "deconstructions". As it happens, Austin and Lev are in fact twin brothers.
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Apr 21, 2016 02:38
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Identical twins at that.
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Apr 21, 2016 04:58
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RoboCicero posted:Soon I Will Be Invincible was fun. If you end up liking Grossman maybe give Crooked a try --it's a book that earnestly combines Nixon's biography with all the high falutin old god lovecraft stuff that's all the rage nowadays. I liked it, but it was also a little bit lighter on the sorcery and existential threat than I would've liked. Probably a slam dunk if you enjoy American history and goofy urban fantasy though. I enjoy American political history like a junkie enjoys crack and I love urban fantasy but Crooked never clicked for me. It feels like a half-finished story, as if the author only had ammunition for a shorter story but dragged it kicking and screaming into novel length. The eldritch horror stuff is not very developed. I also felt like the characterization of Nixon was way off the mark. Hewing the Nixon in that story closer to the man we perceive Nixon to have been would've made it more interesting. There's also a lot of Nixon stuff that could have been mined for the secret history aspect but wasn't. Maybe I just know too much about Nixon, but when your premise is that Richard Nixon was the only thing standing between us and getting eaten by an ancient evil, you're kind of targeting a certain crowd.
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Apr 21, 2016 14:58
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WarLocke posted:Read Austin Grossman's (who I always want to conflate with Lev Grossman) Soon I Will Be Invincible. (I also think Lev is the better of the two Grossmans but that depends entirely on how sick of every single character you are by the end of The Magicians)
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Apr 21, 2016 19:14
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The Doctor Impossible part of Soon I Will Be Invincible was great. The cyborg girl part less so. As the above poster says you can read Doctor Impossible as a reconstruction of the hammy comic book villain, which I think the book is successfil at - and fairly funny about, at times. The cyborg parts threw out some token efforts at simultaneously deconstructing some superhero tropes, but it felt half hearted. That kind of thing has already been done in comics, and done much better. I do like reading superhero stuff in novel form, but the quality just wasn't quite there. I had some doubts about the author after this, but really enjoyed Crooked. Everything about the book worked well, for me, right down to the prose being miles better. Also for prose superheroes I'll plug Worm. It has some flaws but is on the whole a huge achievement with a really interesting world and decent characters (though I intensely dislike the protagonist as a person).
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Apr 22, 2016 05:32
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Neurosis posted:The Doctor Impossible part of Soon I Will Be Invincible was great. The cyborg girl part less so. I read it when it was pretty new and I basically don't remember anything about the cyborg half while Doctor Impossible has stayed with me. "Malign hypercognition disorder" especially.
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Apr 22, 2016 09:39
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Groke posted:I read it when it was pretty new and I basically don't remember anything about the cyborg half while Doctor Impossible has stayed with me. "Malign hypercognition disorder" especially. Audiobook was amazing. Just the Dr I parts.
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Apr 22, 2016 13:10
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I'd really recommend Vicious by V. E. Schwab to anyone interested in superhero fiction, it's an extremely good villain vs villain tale.
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Apr 22, 2016 17:42
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Ursus Veritas posted:I'd really recommend Vicious by V. E. Schwab to anyone interested in superhero fiction, it's an extremely good villain vs villain tale. Thanks, I'll give it go. Her other books look interesting as well, so if this one is good I've got a new author to read.
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Apr 22, 2016 18:32
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flosofl posted:Thanks, I'll give it go. Her other books look interesting as well, so if this one is good I've got a new author to read. I liked Vicious a lot, but her fantasy books are a lot different in tone with a young adult feel to em , and I wish she wrote something in the vein of Vicious again instead of doing a whole ongoing fantasy series.
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Apr 22, 2016 19:13
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I have a simple question. Jurassic Park is a sci-fi novel, right? I just feel like last time I looked in here and asked about Crichton someone said to post about it in a Thrillers thread and I don't get it. The book is pretty much all about science used in a fictional manner.... The movie cut most of the harder stuff so it was all Newman's fault but the novel has a lot of detail.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:20
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Yes, it is an SF novel. Crichton played very fast and loose with scientific concepts, but I think he's great at coming up with a killer premise and writing a thriller about it. He sucks at endings, but that's natural, because he's all about the questions.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:25
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Recently re-read Banks's Against A Dark Background and holy crap I forgot how incredibly funny and hosed up that book is. Highly recommended for those of you who like capers. It's also apparently a trunk novel and I love trunk novels. You really do get to see the author's favorite tools and toys, but deployed in weird and messy ways that create a genius (if highly unpolished) brilliance. It's really revealing of what an author really wants to talk about through their work.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:30
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NikkolasKing posted:I have a simple question. I guess it would depend on how you phrased the question? Jurassic Park is unabashedly science fiction, but something like State of Fear is a thriller and the John Lange books are crime novels.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:39
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Autonomous Monster posted:2. From his own POV, Doctor Impossible is a misunderstood genius with legitimate grievances and a sense of real pathos. He's insane, sure, but he feels like a crazy person. From Fatale's perspective, he's a hammy, scenery chewing lunatic, straight from the pages of a pulp golden age comic. More an incomprehensible force of nature than a real human being. The trick is his dialogue- which is the same in both POVs- is perfectly consistent with both perspectives on the character at all times. WHO DARES! I think this might have been what Grossman was aiming for with the entire book: indistinguishable from the source material wherever it breaks the surface, with something more nuanced layered underneath. It doesn't come together in other places because, well, I think the book just isn't long enough. The lack of space means that too much of the supporting characters and the setting have to be a pastiche- the little flourishes end up not adding depth but instead coming across as trite, tired little "gotcha" "deconstructions". Yeah this is a very good point and explains what I was trying to say earlier better than I did. And I agree that the book could have been longer, 260ish pages felt somewhat short. DACK FAYDEN posted:For what it's worth, I liked Invincible and hated You. Like, a lot. But don't let me scare you off. I actually liked You quite a bit. It fizzles out at the very end, but I think that's more because the book manages to get across its point in the climax and what feels like a good ending point but drags the plot out past that. Even though the book really wasnt about not-Bethesda trying to release not-Skyrim I still found the premise of a long-running game series all using the same not-Gamebryo engine and the mystery that the main character was trying to figure out in all that was fairly gripping. Ursus Veritas posted:I'd really recommend Vicious by V. E. Schwab to anyone interested in superhero fiction, it's an extremely good villain vs villain tale. Putting this on the list, thanks. Also that Worm thing, I've seen it mentioned before but haven't read it (yet).
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Apr 22, 2016 21:51
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General Battuta posted:Yes, it is an SF novel. Crichton played very fast and loose with scientific concepts, but I think he's great at coming up with a killer premise and writing a thriller about it. He sucks at endings, but that's natural, because he's all about the questions. I feel the same way. I truly enjoyed him as a writer. Well, most of his books. Sphere was my personal favorite. Actually, since I'm here, can anyone recommend a similar novel? One thing I really liked about Sphere was the idea of a "first contact team" made up of various specialists and focusing on that team. I think that was really neat and made a lot of sense and I haven't seen or read much else with that. Well, I don't think I've rad anything else like that, actually. Ornamented Death posted:I guess it would depend on how you phrased the question? Jurassic Park is unabashedly science fiction, but something like State of Fear is a thriller and the John Lange books are crime novels. Well I've mainly read his sci-fi stuff. And Congo. I don't know what the gently caress Congo is. Fighting off gorilla-men with lasers is what Congo was.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:53
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Hey Sphere is my favorite too! Even though the last act is awful and the characters are all profoundly unsympathetic, except maybe Norman. It just makes it easier to watch them all get macerated. Books in a similar vein: Blindsight is the all star team-of-scientists-makes-terrifying-first-contact book, and Annihilation is about a team exploring a weird loving place, although the team isn't much of a focus. Neither of them read as cleanly as Crichton, but they're both great. e: by 'not as cleanly' I mean they are more sophisticated, and less easy to read.
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Apr 22, 2016 22:57
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Autonomous Monster posted:1. It's superheroes in prose, which is not common. Most genre don't have much trouble hopping between media; this one (until the recent tv/film boom) seems to be stuck in comics for some reason. I'm not even a superheroes fan, really, I just think it feels pretty novel (heh) in a book. Yeah, that's part of why I enjoyed it so much. Aside from Worm, which is found online and not a novel, I can't think of any other good superhero novels at the moment. Am I missing anything?
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Apr 22, 2016 23:17
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General Battuta posted:e: by 'not as cleanly' I mean they are more sophisticated, and less easy to read. (I've read Blindsight, but not Annihilation) I'm not sure I necessarily agree with "sophistication", but rather that Crichton had an ability to distill the science and technical aspects to easily digestible story elements without undermining the story. This is a rare and valuable thing in regards to authors. Except for snobs, who doesn't write a book wanting as many people as possible to read it. The more accessible you can make it without compromising your vision or story, I'd say the better author you are. Personally, I find Watts to be more "Look how smart I am" in his work. Don't get me wrong, I loved Blindsight and I like Watts in general, but ultimately I *enjoy* more of Crichton's works. He's able to use the same kind of cutting edge (for the time) science and tech ideas without the narrative become tinted with just a hint of smug. Generally. I have no explanation for State of Fear, since that thing was chock full of smug and questionable political messages. I pretend it never existed, much like the Star Wars prequels.
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Apr 22, 2016 23:24
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Solitair posted:Yeah, that's part of why I enjoyed it so much. Aside from Worm, which is found online and not a novel, I can't think of any other good superhero novels at the moment. Am I missing anything? Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem maybe.
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Apr 22, 2016 23:34
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NikkolasKing posted:I feel the same way. I truly enjoyed him as a writer. Well, most of his books. Sphere was my personal favorite. Alan Dean Foster's novelization of noted LucasArts game classic The Dig might scratch that itch; I haven't read it since I was about 13 so I can't vouch for the writing though.
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Apr 23, 2016 00:40
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Solitair posted:Yeah, that's part of why I enjoyed it so much. Aside from Worm, which is found online and not a novel, I can't think of any other good superhero novels at the moment. Am I missing anything?
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Apr 23, 2016 18:56
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Seriously. The premise is Nazi supermen vs British wizards yet it is nowhere near as corny and badly written as you'd think. They really surprised me.
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Apr 23, 2016 19:41
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Does it get better after the scene in the nazi safehouse, maybe a fifth into the first book? I found the writing confusing.
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Apr 23, 2016 20:20
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The exiles series by Peter Clines is a pretty good superhero series. It's superheroes in a zombie apocalypse. Lots of diff heroes, interesting storylines. Sorta heroish is Crysis 3 (the video game novel) by Peter Watts. I liked it better than the video game anyway.
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Apr 23, 2016 21:59
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