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MockingQuantum posted:What are some good sci-fi novels that have truly weird aliens or non-Earth planets/ecosystems? I'm fine with stuff that isn't particularly "hard" sci fi. I've really liked books that are willing to let go of scientific rigor for the sake of really neat ideas. For example, I really dug the aliens in A Fire Upon the Deep (and to a lesser extent, A Deepness in the Sky), and some of the creatures in Hull Zero Three.
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Nov 24, 2016 01:59
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MockingQuantum posted:What are some good sci-fi novels that have truly weird aliens or non-Earth planets/ecosystems? I'm fine with stuff that isn't particularly "hard" sci fi. I've really liked books that are willing to let go of scientific rigor for the sake of really neat ideas. For example, I really dug the aliens in A Fire Upon the Deep (and to a lesser extent, A Deepness in the Sky), and some of the creatures in Hull Zero Three. I liked The Gods Themselves by Asimov. Feels kinda relevant these days, though it kinda falls apart in part three.
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Nov 24, 2016 02:43
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gvibes posted:The Algebraist (that's the gas giant dweller book, I think) Seconding this.
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Nov 24, 2016 03:20
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DirtyRobot posted:This has almost certainly been mentioned in this thread, but I can't find it here or elsewhere. So, here goes... Raymond Chandler has this classic: quote:Did you ever read what they call Science Fiction? It's a scream. It is written like this: "I checked out with K19 on Aldabaran III, and stepped out through the crummalite hatch on my 22 Model Sirus Hardtop. I cocked the timejector in secondary and waded through the bright blue manda grass. My breath froze into pink pretzels. I flicked on the heat bars and the Brylls ran swiftly on five legs using their other two to send out crylon vibrations. The pressure was almost unbearable, but I caught the range on my wrist computer through the transparent cysicites. I pressed the trigger. The thin violet glow was icecold against the rust-colored mountains. The Brylls shrank to half an inch long and I worked fast stepping on them with the poltex. But it wasn't enough. The sudden brightness swung me around and the Fourth Moon had already risen. I had exactly four seconds to hot up the disintegrator and Google had told me it wasn't enough. He was right."
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Nov 25, 2016 19:11
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Well, he got Google right, anyway.
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Nov 25, 2016 19:24
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He got a lot more than that right. Grab a bunch of SF mags from that time or earlier and you'll see plenty of that sort of garbage.
Xotl fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Nov 26, 2016 |
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Nov 25, 2016 21:33
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PupsOfWar posted:Finished Godspeed by Charles Sheffield. David Gerrold has a series inspired by the Heinlein juveniles too. Jumping off the Planet, Bouncing off the Moon, and Leaping for the Stars are a trilogy about a dysfunctional family that tries to flee a collapsing Earth society. There's some excellent world building, some actual science, not enough SF novels take place on a space elevator, and the characterizations are excellent. It's some of Gerrold's best work.
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Nov 25, 2016 22:33
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How often do they have sex with each other though? This is important because :heinlein:
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Nov 26, 2016 02:39
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I just finished the fourth book of the Lightbringer series. Man, what a downer. After really enjoying the first three, this one was a bit of a slog. So little actually happens compared to the previous books. There was one solid "holy poo poo" reveal, but dozens of useless chapters. I really hope the fifth book is the last and provides a more satisfying conclusion.
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Nov 26, 2016 05:38
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I need a new series. I likes space ships, space marines, aliens, time travel, etc... I love some me some universe building.
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Nov 26, 2016 07:59
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Xotl posted:He got a lot more than that right. Grab a bunch of SF mags from that time or earlier and you'll see plenty of that sort of garbage. They paid by the word so there was every incentive to pad the poo poo out of your stories.
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Nov 26, 2016 10:29
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Aggro posted:I just finished the fourth book of the Lightbringer series. Man, what a downer. After really enjoying the first three, this one was a bit of a slog. So little actually happens compared to the previous books. There was one solid "holy poo poo" reveal, but dozens of useless chapters. Pacing was all over the loving place, Weeks was trying to "advance time" every chapter for some reason (I guess so it didn't have 24 TV show esque problems) but it was really jarring and didn't flow right. Chapters flipped from one to another and anything that occured just felt cheap and meaningless for some reason. Not to mention a lot of the plottwists were taken too far to even be cared about (i.e. Kips father, like.. really, really? does that even make a difference to the plot? And for all Andross knows, it still could have been Gavin's if he raped her shortly after. But even then it weirdly doesn't fit in with the first books at all still). I think what happened is it was supposed to be the final book, but not quite enough happened previously to position everything where he wanted in his Plot Outline like a chess board in order to finish it, and this was to accelerate everything so it matches up. End result is welp Xaris fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Nov 26, 2016 |
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Nov 26, 2016 12:23
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Rocksicles posted:I need a new series. Neal Asher. Start with The Skinner.
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Nov 26, 2016 12:36
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Cheers ! Can you give me the skinny on this timeline reading order?
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Nov 27, 2016 00:09
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Start with The Skinner and read through the Spatterjay trilogy if you like it. If you really like it give Gridlinked a try and then read the Agent Cormac series. Then you can start picking at the standalones in the universe if you're really into it.
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Nov 27, 2016 00:25
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Antti posted:Start with The Skinner and read through the Spatterjay trilogy if you like it. This man knows what's up. Skinner is definitely the best intro.
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Nov 27, 2016 06:30
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a foolish pianist posted:Neal Asher. Start with The Skinner. I was going to say War Dogs. Meets OP's reqs with a side of PTSD.
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Nov 27, 2016 06:31
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Just finished The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, not an author I've ever heard of before, but I have a massive TBR list on Goodreads and sometimes splurge on Abebooks just to keep a steady influx of books in the mailbox. It was surprisingly quite good. Written in the sense of a children's fairtyale but it's more like a dark adult urban fantasy. It flags a bit in the second half, but definitely worth reading.
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Nov 27, 2016 10:45
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freebooter posted:Just finished The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, not an author I've ever heard of before, but I have a massive TBR list on Goodreads and sometimes splurge on Abebooks just to keep a steady influx of books in the mailbox. It was surprisingly quite good. Written in the sense of a children's fairtyale but it's more like a dark adult urban fantasy. It flags a bit in the second half, but definitely worth reading. Book of Lost Things is great but his Parker novels are his best work by far and I cannot recommend them enough.
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Nov 27, 2016 11:21
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Biplane posted:Book of Lost Things is great but his Parker novels are his best work by far and I cannot recommend them enough. I like Book of Lost Things, though.
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Nov 27, 2016 12:22
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I thought they were all great and not boring at all 
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Nov 27, 2016 13:41
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My wife and I have been playing the Eldritch Horror board game a lot recently. It draws on a lot of Lovecraft's setting and creatures and well, now I want to read some weird fiction. I'm not opposed to reading Lovecraft himself, but would prefer something newer and from someone less xenophobic. Should I just dig more into China Mieville's stuff? I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station. But anything with people going up against unsettling cults or crazy otherworldly monsters/deities is cool. I also want to gush over Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I'm nearly finished with it and am just in love with it and all of the awesome characters. Really great read.
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Nov 27, 2016 17:07
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Charlie Stross' Laundry books sound like what you want.
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Nov 27, 2016 17:19
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apophenium posted:My wife and I have been playing the Eldritch Horror board game a lot recently. It draws on a lot of Lovecraft's setting and creatures and well, now I want to read some weird fiction. I'm not opposed to reading Lovecraft himself, but would prefer something newer and from someone less xenophobic. Should I just dig more into China Mieville's stuff? I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station. But anything with people going up against unsettling cults or crazy otherworldly monsters/deities is cool. Definitely ready The Scar. It has minimal ties to the story of Perdido but has a lot of the same weird otherworldliness to it. Maybe more.
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Nov 27, 2016 17:23
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Go all in and get the Weird collection edited by the Vandermeers. Lots of content
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Nov 27, 2016 18:07
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apophenium posted:My wife and I have been playing the Eldritch Horror board game a lot recently. It draws on a lot of Lovecraft's setting and creatures and well, now I want to read some weird fiction. I'm not opposed to reading Lovecraft himself, but would prefer something newer and from someone less xenophobic. Should I just dig more into China Mieville's stuff? I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station. But anything with people going up against unsettling cults or crazy otherworldly monsters/deities is cool. thomas ligotti
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Nov 27, 2016 18:13
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FastestGunAlive posted:Go all in and get the Weird collection edited by the Vandermeers. Lots of content The Southern Reach Trilogy is a good start and probably Vandermeers best work.. A lot of places just sell an omnibus for it. One thing to know about Vandermeer is that his characters often just feel like a point of view and rather weak. You should read his work for the weird, creepy stuff he comes up with. There is also a big adaptation for it coming next year by Alex Garland the director of Ex Machina and Natalie Portmann is in it.
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Nov 27, 2016 21:45
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Ulio posted:The Southern Reach Trilogy is a good start and probably Vandermeers best work.. A lot of places just sell an omnibus for it. One thing to know about Vandermeer is that his characters often just feel like a point of view and rather weak. You should read his work for the weird, creepy stuff he comes up with. There is also a big adaptation for it coming next year by Alex Garland the director of Ex Machina and Natalie Portmann is in it. I still haven't read past the first book but if handled well it could be a real mindfuck of a movie. Even in the first book there's a bunch of what the poo poo stuff.
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Nov 27, 2016 21:48
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I actually finished the Southern Reach trilogy about a month ago. It was really enjoyable. The second two books were really different from the first though. Could definitely see people bouncing off the second book expecting another weird creepy story. So maybe I'll check out Vandermeer's anthology thing. Thanks everyone!
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Nov 27, 2016 22:20
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WarLocke posted:I still haven't read past the first book but if handled well it could be a real mindfuck of a movie. Even in the first book there's a bunch of what the poo poo stuff. Ya when I read it I thought it would do really well as psychological/horror kinda movie. The main concerns I have is that the book really doesn't have much dialogue, like 90% of it is inner monologue of how the main character feels. I have faith in the director so far. He wrote 28 days later, sunshine and directed Ex machina all which were great. They all have some sort of psychological horror element in them so I think he will do well. Picking Natalie Portmann for the role is weird because they could have just gotten some random actor or less paid since there isn't much lines for them to say anyway.
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Nov 28, 2016 00:15
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Ulio posted:Picking Natalie Portmann for the role is weird because they could have just gotten some random actor or less paid since there isn't much lines for them to say anyway. Just rewatched V For Vendetta today, and was reminded that Portman can act when she isn't called Padme. I'm sure Annihilation is going to be a big budget film, so the studios probably insisted on a name actress to draw people in. I think Portman will do fine.
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Nov 28, 2016 00:52
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Natalie Portman is a really good actress.
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Nov 28, 2016 13:41
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andrew smash posted:thomas ligotti second this, also Laird Barron
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Nov 28, 2016 18:06
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occamsnailfile posted:second this, also Laird Barron
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Nov 28, 2016 21:40
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coyo7e posted:The Library At Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is pretty fun. Was about to suggest this. Very nice fit for the request, and just a fun book in general.
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Nov 28, 2016 23:29
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Well I just finished Bridge of Birds and, no surprise, loved it. How do the two follow-ups compare? I totally lost it at the part where Ox and Kao and Shen escape from a giant invisible spider via jury-rigged bamboo helicopter. Just so great.
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Nov 29, 2016 03:46
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apophenium posted:My wife and I have been playing the Eldritch Horror board game a lot recently. It draws on a lot of Lovecraft's setting and creatures and well, now I want to read some weird fiction. I'm not opposed to reading Lovecraft himself, but would prefer something newer and from someone less xenophobic. Should I just dig more into China Mieville's stuff? I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station. But anything with people going up against unsettling cults or crazy otherworldly monsters/deities is cool.
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Nov 29, 2016 04:20
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Picked up Redshirts by Scalzi the other day, and I really don't know what to make of it. Worth finishing? The Star Trek direct tie in annoyed me quite a lot
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Nov 29, 2016 14:20
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Daktari posted:Picked up Redshirts by Scalzi the other day, and I really don't know what to make of it. Worth finishing? I liked it, but I know a lot of people didn't like this one.
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Nov 29, 2016 14:24
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apophenium posted:My wife and I have been playing the Eldritch Horror board game a lot recently. It draws on a lot of Lovecraft's setting and creatures and well, now I want to read some weird fiction. I'm not opposed to reading Lovecraft himself, but would prefer something newer and from someone less xenophobic. Should I just dig more into China Mieville's stuff? I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station. But anything with people going up against unsettling cults or crazy otherworldly monsters/deities is cool. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEQBXB4/ We are all completely fine by Daryl Gregory is pretty good. It's a story about a therapy group for survivors of cults and killers and just overall weird poo poo, and then it gets a bit... weirder.
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Nov 29, 2016 14:40
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