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A Proper Uppercut posted:I'll also second the Bujold rec, also in the fantasy vein, Robin Hobb. If we're also talking fantasy, I recommend Louise Cooper's Indigo Saga. It perhaps has a certain amount of "when did the author figure out the ending of her eight-book series?", but said ending is stuck hard. I'll stick my oar in for Stella Gemmell too. Her work is less muscular than her late husband's, but you can see her influence on him. It's hard to tell which parts of the final volume of the Troy trilogy were hers.
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Dec 25, 2019 17:47
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Mr. Peepers posted:OK. About a year ago I decided I wanted to read more female SF authors. Since then I've read some novels by Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed) and Murderbots, of course... and that's about it. Help me get back on this train. I prefer harder SF but will settle for anything good. I've been meaning to check out Cherryh since she's brought up regularly but have no idea where to start. Start with The Pride of Chanur, it's accessible, fast-paced, and stands fine on its own but also has four sequels if you want more stuff in the same setting after finishing it. With that as a baseline, the Merchanter books are in the same wheelhouse (but set in human space) while Foreigner is more slower-paced, relaxing, and political. I'd recommend Bujold and Chambers if half the thread hadn't already beaten me to it. If you want some mil-SF/space-opera-y light reading but without the brainworms of e.g. Weber, check out Elizabeth Moon, in particular Vatta's War and Serrano. I haven't seen anyone recommend Melissa Scott yet (Five-Twelfths of Heaven, Trouble and her Friends), and that's a shame. For one-shots, Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty and A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright are both really good -- I think I got the recommendation for the former from this thread, and for the latter from C.J. Cherryh. Oaths is available for free on the author's website. Also, no-one seems to have recommended Ann Leckie, and while I know the sequels are a bit divisive (I loved them) Ancillary Justice was fun as hell.
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Dec 25, 2019 17:58
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Mr. Peepers posted:Should I start with Shards of Honor? I'd prefer self-contained books or shorter series to a sprawling dozen-book narrative but if I can just read the first few and get a satisfying experience then I'm down. Shards of Honour is the first book she wrote and is a prequel to the main stories, so it's not bad but is probably the weakest book she's wrote. On the other hand it does lead into Barrayar the second prequel which is probably one of the best books she wrote. So I'd recommend reading the two of them together and then if you like them moving onto the main series. Really though I'm just jealous of anyone getting to read the series for the first time. I can't recommend them highly enough
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Dec 25, 2019 18:25
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This should all tide me over for a good long while, thanks for the suggestions.
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Dec 25, 2019 19:09
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ToxicFrog posted:Start with The Pride of Chanur, it's accessible, fast-paced, and stands fine on its own but also has four sequels if you want more stuff in the same setting after finishing it. With that as a baseline, the Merchanter books are in the same wheelhouse (but set in human space) while Foreigner is more slower-paced, relaxing, and political. God I need to read Trouble and Her Friends, I own it, I could start it now, but.... backlog.... Anyways thank you for Six Wakes, I somehow missed that one entirely.
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Dec 25, 2019 19:53
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Yup, the Wayfarers series is where you want to be. i just read the first in wayfarers and really dug it it's one of the few scifi books to like pleasantly remind me of the feeling of star trek:tng, where there's a complicated set of civilizations more or less at peace with each other, and learning about how to coexist with other cultures is a huge focus of the story. also it was queer and somewhat romance-y without getting into gross Larry Niven "my fetish is imagining how to gently caress aliens" territory
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Dec 25, 2019 19:58
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Kesper North posted:It's a great way to answer the question of "Is this person a perennial shithead or are they just having an off day?"  (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Dec 25, 2019 20:14
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Mr. Peepers posted:Should I start with Shards of Honor? I'd prefer self-contained books or shorter series to a sprawling dozen-book narrative but if I can just read the first few and get a satisfying experience then I'm down. I read the series in omnibus order last year and found it entirely followable enough. The only viewpoint shifts are to Cordelia in the two prequel books, and back to her and a couple former supporting characters (Ivan Vorpatril, Armsman Roic, Ekaterin Vorkosigan) in the more recent books. Also as I've said previously it took me like 3 tries over the years to get through Shards of Honor, the start is meh but it picks up when Cordelia gets back to Beta and then leaves Beta.
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Dec 25, 2019 20:38
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The paladin is a very good cherryh standalone, and the four morgaine books are also excellent.
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Dec 25, 2019 20:59
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Mr. Peepers posted:OK. About a year ago I decided I wanted to read more female SF authors. Since then I've read some novels by Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed) and Murderbots, of course... and that's about it. Help me get back on this train. I prefer harder SF but will settle for anything good. I've been meaning to check out Cherryh since she's brought up regularly but have no idea where to start. Elizabeth bear. Jacobs ladder series. Tanya huff. Tbh there's loads of great female written SciFi and some trash - same as any other grouping of authors.
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Dec 25, 2019 23:05
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StrixNebulosa posted:God I need to read Trouble and Her Friends, I own it, I could start it now, but.... backlog.... Trouble and her friends is good but it's very dated like most genuine cyberpunk. Definitely a modern take on gender and sexuality too if that's your thing. It's similar to pat cadigan - not as actiony as early William Gibson. It's actually pretty dense and slow.
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Dec 25, 2019 23:13
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Dated cyberpunk is the best kind of cyberpunk imo, as long as it's actually punk. I love it when sci-fi uses "~modern tech~" like tapes or floppies or what have you.
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Dec 25, 2019 23:33
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Hey, has anyone in here read Martha Wells' Raksura series? The mass market paperback editions of 2+3 are dropping in January and February respectively. I want to know: what's the story structure like? Are books 1-3 a trilogy? Are the short story volumes mandatory? How do 4-5 tie into things?
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Dec 26, 2019 00:14
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1-3 are a trilogy, I haven’t read the follow up stories yet. I enjoyed them, and the world would be great for an RPG or video game. Murderbot is hands down better but I’ve enjoyed her work for many years. Autocorrect thinks Murderbots is correct but not the singular.
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Dec 26, 2019 00:33
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occamsnailfile posted:1-3 are a trilogy, I haven’t read the follow up stories yet. I enjoyed them, and the world would be great for an RPG or video game. Murderbot is hands down better but I’ve enjoyed her work for many years. I just finished Murderbot 3 today and I'm still sad, haha. Gonna start 4 proper soon, and then while I pine for the novel I figured I'd get into her Raksura stuff for some fun fluffy fantasy. Good to know that 1-3 are something I can enjoy on their own, then get the rest if I want to continue.
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Dec 26, 2019 00:34
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StrixNebulosa posted:Dated cyberpunk is the best kind of cyberpunk imo, as long as it's actually punk. I love it when sci-fi uses "~modern tech~" like tapes or floppies or what have you. My favorite thing about reading Dick and Asimov stories growing up was that everyone was still running programs on punchcards. One PKD story really stuck with me about a person who discovers he's a robot and alters his code by randomly punching holes in the computer tape running through his chest. Not exactly "punk" but it hits a similar theme of taking control of your body that cyberpunk does with augments or mods or whatever.
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Dec 26, 2019 00:38
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There's an Asimov story that opens with the narrator working on a nuclear typewriter and I love it
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Dec 26, 2019 00:49
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:There's an Asimov story that opens with the narrator working on a nuclear typewriter and I love it Multivac, a sometimes intelligent computer or series of computers in some of his stories, is using punch cards.
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Dec 26, 2019 00:53
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:There's an Asimov story that opens with the narrator working on a nuclear typewriter and I love it What... is that? A nuclear-power powered typewriter?
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Dec 26, 2019 00:57
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From memory, yes. It's an electric typewriter with a built-in nuclear power source.
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Dec 26, 2019 01:00
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To be fair, real-life ideas for how to use nuclear power were pretty out there around the late '40s to early '60s or so. Read up on Project Orion for a real head-scratcher.
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Dec 26, 2019 01:03
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:From memory, yes. It's an electric typewriter with a built-in nuclear power source. Isn't the miniaturization of nuclear power a big deal in the Foundation series? As I recall Asimov had a lot of Thoughts about nuclear technology. One of his stories is real brief, like three pages, about an alien recordkeeper preparing to welcome Earth into the galactic community. "This new Type 3a civilization has entered their nuclear age and has begun large-scale testing. Wait, instead of detonating on neighboring empty planets they're testing on each other? *erases Earth from record book* Stupid idiots, they'll never make it."
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Dec 26, 2019 01:23
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Absurd Alhazred posted:To be fair, real-life ideas for how to use nuclear power were pretty out there around the late '40s to early '60s or so. Read up on Project Orion for a real head-scratcher.
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Dec 26, 2019 01:23
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Absurd Alhazred posted:To be fair, real-life ideas for how to use nuclear power were pretty out there around the late '40s to early '60s or so. Read up on Project Orion for a real head-scratcher. What’s wrong with project Orion?
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Dec 26, 2019 04:09
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pseudanonymous posted:What’s wrong with project Orion? What's wrong with using nuclear explosions in the atmosphere to kick payload into orbit?
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Dec 26, 2019 04:24
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Orion's potential would be wasted as a simple orbital launcher. Where it would be really useful would be as an interplanetary or potentially interstellar vehicle - an Orion drive could theoretically provide enough impulse to get to a high percentage of lightspeed and decelerate again, which would make traveling to nearby stars within a few decades possible (although probably not practical). The obvious use case would be orbital assembly of the craft using more conventional orbital boosters.
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Dec 26, 2019 04:32
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Gnoman posted:Orion's would be wasted as a simple orbital launcher. Where it would be really useful would be as an interplanetary or potentially interstellar vehicle - an Orion drive could theoretically provide enough impulse to get to a high percentage of lightspeed and decelerate again, which would make traveling to nearby stars within a few decades possible (although probably not practical). That sounds more like Project Daedalus, but you still need to get nukes into orbit, good luck with convincing anyone you're doing that for peaceful purposes, or even if you did, safeguarding them from being used for non-peaceful purposes.
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Dec 26, 2019 04:33
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Daedalus was a fundamentally different principle - a fusion "candle" replacing a conventional rocket motor. Also potentially efficient, and probably superior to nuclear pulse propulsion, but both fission and fusion rockets remain in the realm of theory while every component to build Orion has existed for decades. Orion would have massive political problems, and there's no way it could be built by just one nation (both for the political problems and the fact that the ideal techs belong to different countries). It isn't a lunatic idea, however.
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Dec 26, 2019 04:39
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Considering we worked with other countries to land a rover on mars, and we landed it IN mars cause we were not using metric and they were, any group project involving nuclear bombs is gonna be a horrible idea.
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Dec 26, 2019 05:34
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Considering we worked with other countries to land a rover on mars, and we landed it IN mars cause we were not using metric and they were, any group project involving nuclear bombs is gonna be a horrible idea. Na, I'm sure if we move the goalposts enough it'll work out great.
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Dec 26, 2019 05:35
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Absurd Alhazred posted:To be fair, real-life ideas for how to use nuclear power were pretty out there around the late '40s to early '60s or so. Read up on Project Orion for a real head-scratcher. SLAM/Project Pluto, arguably the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. Where we can truthfully say, thank the gods for ICBMs being invented in time to make this look inefficient. Various civil engineering plans... have a stretch of coastline but no good harbour? Mountains kind of in the way of your planned highway? Never fret, uncle Oppenheimer has your back. Groke fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Dec 26, 2019 |
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Dec 26, 2019 10:07
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Ferrosol posted:Shards of Honour is the first book she wrote and is a prequel to the main stories, so it's not bad but is probably the weakest book she's wrote. On the other hand it does lead into Barrayar the second prequel which is probably one of the best books she wrote. So I'd recommend reading the two of them together and then if you like them moving onto the main series. Really though I'm just jealous of anyone getting to read the series for the first time. I can't recommend them highly enough Yeah, those two really should be read as a unit. Either before embarking on the first proper Miles book (The Warrior's Apprentice) or at some time between then and, I'd say, before A Civil Campaign (if for no other reason than getting the "shopping with Cordelia" reference in the latter.) Because as you say Shards is not her strongest work, but Barrayar... well... the "shopping" scene is one of the best things ever, just to pick an example.
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Dec 26, 2019 10:13
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Groke posted:SLAM/Project Pluto, arguably the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. Where we can truthfully say, thank the gods for ICBMs being invented in time to make this look inefficient. Bad news, the Russians are building them now.
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Dec 26, 2019 10:24
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Wasnt the recent test failure cover up exactly this? The whole idea is insane. Though from an "earth could do with more wilderness where no human can set foot" perspective, it could have unforeseen benefits like the area around pripyat.
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Dec 26, 2019 11:26
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Here's some more good Science Fiction by women: Nancy Kress is probably the most consistent woman writing traditional hard science fiction today. Some great thought experiment stuff. Kage Baker was corny as hell but beneath that she's entertaining and clearly followed her own interests in one of the better long as hell science fiction series out there. Christine Brooke-Rose is a name that's mainly mentioned in the literature thread but if you're looking for actually good writing she wrote a number of science-fiction novels, but why not read everything she wrote. Angélica Gorodischer was translated by Ursula Le Guinne and I like her stuff a lot.
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Dec 26, 2019 12:55
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gently caress me I also forgot to mention Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman series, about a member of a roving organization of cartographer-researchers who ends up at odds with the Mages' Guild actually the only people on this backwater planet who have electricity and radios over her investigations into mysterious iridescent blue gemstones with silver veins running through them actually fragments of solar panels from a crashed satellite. (Spoilers are for like halfway through the first book, although the second one was spoiled by the cover of the first book in my edition, and, IMO, knowing that enhanced my enjoyment of the book.) Regrettably it's meant to be a five-book series and she's only written the first four so far, but I'm not sure the fifth will ever get finished and the first four are good on their own, so.
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Dec 26, 2019 13:53
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ToxicFrog posted:gently caress me I also forgot to mention Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman series, about a member of a roving organization of cartographer-researchers who ends up at odds with the Mages' Guild actually the only people on this backwater planet who have electricity and radios over her investigations into mysterious iridescent blue gemstones with silver veins running through them actually fragments of solar panels from a crashed satellite. Kirstein is good but she lost me in the first book when she was like torture is good and super effective actually. That's a real knock on a supposedly humanist series.
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Dec 26, 2019 18:49
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Groke posted:Ford Nucleon, the atomic car. Never really made it off the concept drawing stage but I remember something similar in one of the Fallout games.  (and yes that's a lame excuse to have explodey cars and yes I don't care)
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Dec 26, 2019 18:57
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New post-Christmas kindle deals. A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MJ656W9/ The newest Abercrombie Trilogy. Super famous so you probably know if you like him. I do, but I'm still working through his standalones. The Black Prism by Brent Weeks - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003JTHY76/ I remember the main character being kind of lame, but the rest is exciting enough. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NFHF0Q/ 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RD8544/
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Dec 26, 2019 21:13
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fez_machine posted:Kirstein is good but she lost me in the first book when she was like torture is good and super effective actually. That's a real knock on a supposedly humanist series. I just read the first book today after the recommendation and that is not at all what I got from that scene. Having it work but be horrific is, while inaccurate, a far cry from ‘good’.
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Dec 26, 2019 23:34
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