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mllaneza posted:Peter Hamilton is also chock full of amazing set-piece action scenes; it's fluff but entertaining fluff. This. There's a lot of cringeworthy bits in Night's Dawn, but there's also scenes like Alkad Mzu's escape from Tranquility and the deployment of the Alchemist that hit the "Whoa, cool!" button dead on. Doc Smith - while I know Lensman is the poster child for weapons escalation culminating in planetary ping pong, I don't recall there being anything too bad about the Family d'Alembert. They were just space spy romps.
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Apr 10, 2018 22:48
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Is peter hamilton's recent duology any good? I guess it's done now and I haven't checked back on him in a while. His goodreads link to his webpage is 404'd, did he lose macmillian press?
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Apr 10, 2018 22:51
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Ornamented Death posted:If you're new to both series, you'll want to read through Faust #5 before jumping in to the Harmony Black books, then I think you alternate. Alternatively, you could just skip the Harmony Black books entirely. Faust is already C-tier urban fantasy as it is. The spinoff barely manages to scrape by with a D-.
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Apr 10, 2018 23:16
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https://twitter.com/DEADLINE/status/983736846172635136
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Apr 10, 2018 23:33
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Bhodi posted:Is peter hamilton's recent duology any good? I guess it's done now and I haven't checked back on him in a while. His goodreads link to his webpage is 404'd, did he lose macmillian press? He's still there. His official address, https://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk ends up at PanMacmillan. I haven't read the Chronicles of the Fallers duology yet, but I'd guess if you liked the other books in the Commonwealth universe, this would be more of the same: fun escapism with great action sequences and sometimes awkward sex scenes (though apparently less or none at all in his latest books, I seem to remember reading somewhere.)
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Apr 11, 2018 00:14
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Fart of Presto posted:
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Apr 11, 2018 01:08
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ianmacdo posted:Someone must have talked with him about that. In the recent ones some of the characters call out others on their creepy dating habits, and the space police arrest the guy from a previous story that kept cloning his highschool crush so he could date her over and over.
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Apr 11, 2018 01:33
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Kesper North posted:Never mind that, the new Daniel Faust is out. Is his new spin-off series any good? Not sure I feel like trying to keep up with that, Harmony Black, and Daniel Faust.
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Apr 11, 2018 01:58
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cast Sam Jackson as Hari Seldon or I'm out really though, Foundation doesn't strike me as great TV material. The characters uniformly suck at being characters and the good bits don't seem like they will translate well to TV. I assume what we'll get is a flashy sci-fi show vaguely based around the books. Could work.
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Apr 11, 2018 02:04
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Fallom posted:Is his new spin-off series any good? Not sure I feel like trying to keep up with that, Harmony Black, and Daniel Faust. Which? The Revanche Cycle is self-contained and done at this point, it's not a bad little fantasy epic but nothing earth shattering. I haven't read the other book he put out at the beginning of the year, which seems like it's going to maybe be its own series? A friend read it and really liked it, but Schaefer could poo poo on a paper plate and this guy would probably read it with joy.
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Apr 11, 2018 03:12
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MockingQuantum posted:Which? The Revanche Cycle is self-contained and done at this point, it's not a bad little fantasy epic but nothing earth shattering. I haven't read the other book he put out at the beginning of the year, which seems like it's going to maybe be its own series? A friend read it and really liked it, but Schaefer could poo poo on a paper plate and this guy would probably read it with joy. Apparently some characters from the new series might be breakthroughs from Revanche.
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Apr 11, 2018 03:46
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Victorkm posted:Apparently some characters from the new series might be breakthroughs from Revanche. That does not surprise me in the least, given a bunch of things that happen in Revanche that I don't feel like writing out and spoilertagging.
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Apr 11, 2018 03:49
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I enjoy Peter F Hamilton except for the endings, which are basically all Deus ex Machina in one way or another. Has he improved his ability to conclude a story in the latest duology?
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Apr 11, 2018 04:31
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MockingQuantum posted:Which? The Revanche Cycle is self-contained and done at this point, it's not a bad little fantasy epic but nothing earth shattering. I haven't read the other book he put out at the beginning of the year, which seems like it's going to maybe be its own series? A friend read it and really liked it, but Schaefer could poo poo on a paper plate and this guy would probably read it with joy. It features Faust, Black, Calypso, Nyx, pretty much everyone. I really liked it. Edit: It might be the most mythology-heavy book he's done (and the Revanche connections are explicit). I'm not sure if it's meant to be the series where major storylines are concluded or not. Either way, the setup for the next book seems really cool. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 08:50 on Apr 11, 2018 |
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Apr 11, 2018 08:20
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Fallom posted:Is his new spin-off series any good? Not sure I feel like trying to keep up with that, Harmony Black, and Daniel Faust. It’s good, much better than Harmony Black.
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Apr 11, 2018 12:16
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Does Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke blend together in other peoples mind too?
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Apr 11, 2018 17:41
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I see Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels in this thread even though thy are not scifi/fantasy. The first ebook in the series seems to be on sale on Amazon and all the other stores for 3 bux. I've enjoyed the nautically themed books I've read in the past so I picked it up.
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Apr 11, 2018 17:49
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Ban Folklore posted:I see Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels in this thread even though thy are not scifi/fantasy. The first ebook in the series seems to be on sale on Amazon and all the other stores for 3 bux. They're absolutely worth the read, enjoy! They're mentioned in their thread because they depict a world so foreign to ours it might as well be sci-fi.
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Apr 11, 2018 17:55
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Just finished Consider Phlebas. In addition to the action scenes lasting way too long, the ending was abrupt and stupid Everyone dies except for: - the Mcguffin, who inexplicably changes its name to the man who attempted to capture it - a drone that none of the characters nor the reader paid attention to - the captive intelligence officer who promptly put herself on ice for 500 years then committed suicide a couple of months after waking up
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Apr 11, 2018 18:24
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Raere posted:Just finished Consider Phlebas. In addition to the action scenes lasting way too long, the ending was abrupt and stupid Much like in real life,  I recently finished this book as well and did not love it, but liked it enough to read more at some point. I agree about the action scenes and the Mcguffin name change. Was the ship being condescending or what? Really, I'm liking the IDEA of the books more than the books after reading CP and am going to continue on faith that the others are different.
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Apr 11, 2018 19:22
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Each of the Culture books has a epilogue chapter like that, except for Use of Weapons, i think. CP is the oddball Culture book that most people dislike because the core things that make up most of the Culture books interesting reads (Culture Ships + Culture Minds + Culture badassness+ baroque alien civilization scheming defeated by Culture Ships/Culture Minds) barely appear in CP.
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Apr 11, 2018 21:03
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I'll continue to read more in the series. It's a shame that some of them aren't available on Kindle so I guess I'll have to pick up some old paperbacks
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Apr 11, 2018 22:18
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Ban Folklore posted:I see Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels in this thread even though thy are not scifi/fantasy. The first ebook in the series seems to be on sale on Amazon and all the other stores for 3 bux. Remember: When you come across incomprehensible nautical jargon, just keep reading and let the words wash over you By the time you've finished the series, your understanding will have grown enough so that you can re-read the series anew this remains true for each successive reread
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Apr 11, 2018 22:21
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Raere posted:Just finished Consider Phlebas. In addition to the action scenes lasting way too long, the ending was abrupt and stupid I agree that some of the action scenes went on too long and started to drag. The book is a lot rougher than the rest of the series in that regard. While definitely abrupt, I didn't think the ending was stupid though. War doesn't produce a lot of happy endings and there isn't any plot armor. The main character figured out too late that he was fighting for the wrong side, and got everyone he cared about killed. The whole thing was totally pointless if I remember correctly, because the Mind already had the Idirans fooled with the fancy hologram version of itself. The Culture Minds all have names that have some meaning behind them, and the main character was one of the first people it met, and probably the most interesting. The Minds also generally have quirky senses of humor, and taking the name of a shapeshifter would be right up their alley. The culture agent basically just joined up to play war. She didn't have to be there, and saw a lot of terrible things and probably had a ton of guilt over it. I imagine waking up 500 years later to see that it was absolutely pointless in the grand scheme of things didn't make it any better either.
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Apr 12, 2018 00:23
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Give Use of Weapons a shot before calling it quits. The Culture and the post-scarcity ideas are conveyed much more effectively. Player of Games is decent, and I didn't hate the first 2/3rds of Surface Detail.
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Apr 12, 2018 03:38
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Any good sci-fi horror books come to anyone's mind? Ive read Blindsight and Ship of Fools and I'm working my way through PKD and the Strugatsky bros works. For some reason sci-fi horror books actually scare me and I want more!
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Apr 12, 2018 04:15
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Cosmic Horror is pretty much by definition sci fi, but I guess you want more in the way of sci fi trappings... Which actually leaves me kind of short on recommendations. Maybe The Deep by Nick Cutter? It's cosmic horror in the near future where a terrible disease has developed. The protagonist goes to a research station where messed up stuff happens.
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Apr 12, 2018 04:33
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If you like the horror aspects of Blindsight, Watt's earlier books take the dehumanization stuff even further and have a bunch of pretty unsettling characters and events
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Apr 12, 2018 04:56
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How about Charlie Stross' A Colder War ? It's Lovecraft crossed with a documentary on the Iran-Contra affair. It's one of the few truly hosed up things he's written, and it's really good.
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Apr 12, 2018 07:10
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The Harrison Peel files are pretty good. It's a lovecraftian spy thriller sort of set up, and the way that he writes the shoggoths is terrifying. Unrelated to that, I'm now going to listen when an author apologizes for "That scene" in a book, cause Craig Schaefer did that, and I thought "Pfft" and then I read it, and AAAUUUGGHHH gently caress that was not cool man. Neon Boneyard was pretty good though.
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Apr 12, 2018 07:35
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mllaneza posted:How about Charlie Stross' A Colder War ? It's Lovecraft crossed with a documentary on the Iran-Contra affair. It's one of the few truly hosed up things he's written, and it's really good. i didn't recommend this because i think it's a little light on what is characteristically 'sci fi' until the last part, but it is really, really good. maybe the best cosmic horror thing i've ever read and certainly the best work of charles stross that i've read. the basic idea behind it being that the fear of nuclear destruction experienced at the height of the cold war had a close correspondence with the fears cosmic horror plays on.
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Apr 12, 2018 08:12
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The issue with a colder war (an excellent read otherwise) is that it is not really scary, but reads more like a recapitulation of history.
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Apr 12, 2018 09:57
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nopantsjack posted:Any good sci-fi horror books come to anyone's mind? Ive read Blindsight and Ship of Fools and I'm working my way through PKD and the Strugatsky bros works. Hyperion has some parts to it that are extremely messed up horror.
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Apr 12, 2018 10:34
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Cardiac posted:The issue with a colder war (an excellent read otherwise) is that it is not really scary, but reads more like a recapitulation of history. It also gets suggested when people are looking for books, but its just a short story isn't it?
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Apr 12, 2018 16:54
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Captain Monkey posted:It also gets suggested when people are looking for books, but its just a short story isn't it? Yeah, but that story was kind of the stepping stone to the Laundry Files. Which, admittedly, is more Cosmic Horror meets Office Space meets the real banality of espionage.
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Apr 12, 2018 17:27
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Proteus Jones posted:Yeah, but that story was kind of the stepping stone to the Laundry Files. Which, admittedly, is more Cosmic Horror meets Office Space meets the real banality of espionage. Ah, I somehow missed those. Now I have something new to read!
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Apr 12, 2018 17:59
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I haven't followed the thread in a while, but does anyone have recs for science fantasy? Specifically in instances where the 'fantasy' part is more about a pre-modern civilization coming out of a distant apocalypse where the world was 'futuristic', so to speak. I've been looking at Shannara, since it came up in my searches, but I don't really know anything about it. I have read Dying Earth and Shadow of the Torturer, which are similar to what I'm looking for but they don't quite surface the sci-fi stuff in big ways, which is fine.
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Apr 12, 2018 19:29
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Appoda posted:I haven't followed the thread in a while, but does anyone have recs for science fantasy? Specifically in instances where the 'fantasy' part is more about a pre-modern civilization coming out of a distant apocalypse where the world was 'futuristic', so to speak. https://www.amazon.com/Breed-Come-Andre-Norton/dp/0670188948
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Apr 12, 2018 19:35
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I finished James Cambias's A Darkling Sea which was decent "turn your brain off" scifi fiction. Like the dudes who wrote the 1st expanse book, Cambias visibly got bored with the little details in Darkling Sea & rushed everyone together for a To Be Continued? ending.
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Apr 12, 2018 20:16
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So what is Wool about anyway, all I know is post-apocalypse and silos full of people.
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Apr 12, 2018 20:20
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