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Crossposting. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke Big Dumb Object stories are a particular favorite of mine, and this was my first time sitting down with the granddaddy of them all since middle school. Now I understand why the attempts to make a film adaptation of this book have never materialized: very little actually happens in this book, and character depth and growth are nonexistent. Rendezvous with Rama has basically nothing going for it except the wonder of Rama itself and pondering what it all means, and as such I find it a pretty shallow book compared to the subgenre it inspired, not helped by the fact that the ideas here, which probably were very original at the time, are now commonplace as a result of this book's success so a lot of the original effect of the book is lost. Some genre classics manage to stand the test of time, but sadly I don't think this one does.
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Feb 3, 2020 18:17
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I also adore big dumb object stories. What's your favorite (and everyone else's too)?
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Feb 3, 2020 18:20
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I actually enjoyed Sphere a lot. Not a traditional choice but I enjoyed the atmosphere of it.
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Feb 3, 2020 18:41
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Stephen Baxter's Moonseed is one that really sticks out in my mind, though it's again not a terribly traditional example (it's half BDO, half disaster story). For a straight BDO story, I liked L. E. Modesitt Jr's Solar Express. Modesitt's flaws as an author bothered me a lot less in that book than they do in others for some reason. Now that I think about it, it's been a long time since I've read Moonseed. Time to see if my local library has it.
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Feb 3, 2020 18:47
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Black Griffon posted:I also adore big dumb object stories. What's your favorite (and everyone else's too)? I liked Sleeping Giants. Also Ringworld, and obviouslythe Rama books.
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Feb 3, 2020 19:12
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XBenedict posted:and obviouslythe Rama books.
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Feb 3, 2020 19:18
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90s Cringe Rock posted:That's... not obvious. At all. Like, all of them? There can be only one.
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Feb 3, 2020 20:19
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Oh yeah I'm a big sphere fan. I saw the film when I was young enough to not care that it was bad, and hence read it (while only a few years older) with way more excitement. Also, my dad insisted I see and read 2001 as soon as my proficiency with English was good enough (second language), and thus that one means a lot to me as well.
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Feb 3, 2020 20:24
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Black Griffon posted:I also adore big dumb object stories. What's your favorite (and everyone else's too)? Excession
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Feb 3, 2020 20:40
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The thing in Egan's Diaspora is a cool BDO. If it counts, the setting of Blame, but unfortunately there isn't a novelisation so it's more of an ADTRW affair.
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Feb 3, 2020 20:59
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Does Unto Leviathan count?
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Feb 3, 2020 21:03
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Even if it doesn't, people should read it.
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Feb 3, 2020 21:06
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If big dumb weird places count then Roadside Picnic.
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Feb 3, 2020 21:07
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I recently finished Southern Reach. I must admit every further entry felt more like an unmotivated prequel than a continuation of the story. I was really into it at the start, but pretty done with it by the end. I don't really mind the ending though.
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Feb 3, 2020 21:14
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Matter. A book about a big piece of matter and about how different things matter.
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Feb 3, 2020 21:16
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sebmojo posted:Matter. A book about a big piece of matter and about how different things matter. I think it was about how nothing matters.
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Feb 3, 2020 21:23
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Man, when is the rest of the Culture going to get released on Kindle? There's a couple of random books right in the middle that aren't available as ebooks for some reason.
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Feb 3, 2020 21:38
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TOOT BOOT posted:Man, when is the rest of the Culture going to get released on Kindle? There's a couple of random books right in the middle that aren't available as ebooks for some reason. They are available on the UK version of Amazon for some reason, I know I changed my address to Big Ben and bought Excession that way a few years ago. Then just swapped back.
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Feb 3, 2020 21:49
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:I think it was about how nothing matters. That too
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Feb 3, 2020 22:01
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Okay, so on Kindle, Unto Leviathan has 440 pages or something and Ship of Fools has 388 but more reviews. They're the same book, but are they (they are, but...)? Please help.
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Feb 3, 2020 22:27
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SFF I read in January: All Systems Red (Murderbot1) - This was quick and fine but mostly forgettable. Fires’ Astonishment - A virtually unknown fantasy book I read because it was recommended by Philip Reeve; a really good, solid, Middle Ages tale of an evil sorcereress and a dragon, written in Booker-worthy prose. Half the Day is Night - Really didn't like this and it appears to be a common opinion. It's by Maureen F. McHugh, who wrote China Mountain Zhang, which is great, but somehow the same basic formula (ordinary people living in a scifi world) which worked so well in that one just drags interminably in this. Also the world of CMZ (a communist America) had a concrete impact on the day to day lives of the characters; in this one it's an underwater dome city, but it may as well have been a space colony, or even just a present-day story about expats in the developing world. It's not bad on a page to page level, it's just really dull. Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days - Short, good, compelling stuff. (Can't recall when else I've ever seen two novellas paired as one book in this century, but I suppose he had clout with his publisher by this point). Reynolds is very reliable for an engaging 4-star sci-fi potboiler. A Wrinkle in the Skin - short post-apoc novel by the deeply underrated John Christopher, one of Wyndham's contemporaries; a series of earthquakes kills billion and remaps the terrain and the protagonist treks across the now-dry seabed from the Channel Isles to England to search for his daughter. Some great, memorable scenes in here, undercut by a more obvious-than-usual note of 1960s misogyny and British class prejudice. Dark Matter - An airport thriller down to its bones, but the very best kind of airport thriller. The only thing I can say without spoiling things is that it's a parallel universe story. I was also really impressed by the third act, which went in a totally unexpected direction. If you can get over Crouch's Paterson-esque writing style (I've never actually read a Paterson book but I imagine this is what they're like) it's a great story. Highly recommended, especially if you have a cross-country flight coming up. Black Griffon posted:I also adore big dumb object stories. What's your favorite (and everyone else's too)? Pushing Ice. The story goes on so much longer than I thought it would; not in the sense that it's too long, in the sense of "a lot of other writers would find their imagination runs out here and they'd just end it on a vaguely mysterious note." Reynolds just keeps pushing (hey-o!) and it's enthralling.
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Feb 3, 2020 23:39
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freebooter posted:Pushing Ice. The story goes on so much longer than I thought it would; not in the sense that it's too long, in the sense of "a lot of other writers would find their imagination runs out here and they'd just end it on a vaguely mysterious note." Reynolds just keeps pushing (hey-o!) and it's enthralling. Oh this sounds so much like my poo poo. I love a mystery, but I've got such a soft spot for SF with long explorations of explanations.
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Feb 3, 2020 23:54
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Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFMG6/ One of my absolute favorite series, thought some find it too depressing.
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Feb 4, 2020 00:22
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90s Cringe Rock posted:If big dumb weird places count then Roadside Picnic. If Roadside Picnic counts in the "big dumb object" genre then I nominate both Stanislaw Lem's Solaris and Stanislaw Lem's Fiasco as the best big dumb object books ever because both books are full of toss-away paragraphs and ideas lesser authors have built entire series over. Black Griffon posted:Oh this sounds so much like my poo poo. I love a mystery, but I've got such a soft spot for SF with long explorations of explanations. Be careful. Pushing Ice has good scope, however it also has one of the worst most shitbag vindictive characters I have ever read, which is why I can't recommend it blind to anyone. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 01:03
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quantumfoam posted:Be careful. Pushing Ice has good scope, however it also has one of the worst most shitbag vindictive characters I have ever read, which is why I can't recommend it blind to anyone. Yeah characterisation is not Reynolds' strong suit (but that's true of most sci-fi authors) and IIRC a significant plot thread basically relies on two leading characters behaving like petty teenagers for decades on end and nobody else in their supposedly professional crew batting an eyelid. Reynolds in particular seems to have an issue with characters who are needlessly hostile to each other. This is most notable in Revelation Space but also really present in Pushing Ice. I'm sure he's a nice guy in person but he seems to base all his character writing off backstabbing political dramas.
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Feb 4, 2020 03:49
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90s Cringe Rock posted:That's... not obvious. At all. Like, all of them? Well, the first two anyway. Yes. I liked Rama II
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Feb 4, 2020 03:51
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I like Reynolds but yeah he seems to have no idea how to write organic relationships and conflicts between characters. He even somehow blew the most obvious setup in the history of sci-fi to bring to characters full circle in House of Suns by not making the Air swarm thing the kid from Abigail's childhood. Iirc people have asked him if they were the same character and he said "uh I never thought of that but yeah I guess could be so." Still a good book but c'mon!
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Feb 4, 2020 04:24
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Talking of Reynolds, has anyone had a chance to check out the new Revenger? I wasn't enthralled by the first two but enjoyed them well enough. Hopefully this final volume dives headfirst in the mysteries previously teased at.
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Feb 4, 2020 10:13
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Does Blindsight count as a big dumb object? Cause if so, that. Otherwise Ringworld I guess, though that certainly has a lot of flaws.
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Feb 4, 2020 15:58
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pseudanonymous posted:Does Blindsight count as a big dumb object? Cause if so, that. Otherwise Ringworld I guess, though that certainly has a lot of flaws. I mean, in some ways, the dumbness of things is a theme in and of itself in Blindsight, but anyway it's good so yeah gently caress it
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Feb 4, 2020 16:14
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Junkenstein posted:Talking of Reynolds, has anyone had a chance to check out the new Revenger? I wasn't enthralled by the first two but enjoyed them well enough. Hopefully this final volume dives headfirst in the mysteries previously teased at. It is the same style and fairly enjoyable. Pretty grim as well. Probably not going to resolve all mysteries, on the other hand that setting deserves further explorations. Something which really was not possible for revelation space in the same way.
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Feb 4, 2020 19:32
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Oh and also I bought Pushing Ice way before any of your warnings, but I'm reading Baru Cormorant atm, and with all that well written cruelty, I can probably stomach some poorly written cruelty.
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Feb 4, 2020 21:30
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freebooter posted:Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days - Short, good, compelling stuff. (Can't recall when else I've ever seen two novellas paired as one book in this century, but I suppose he had clout with his publisher by this point). Reynolds is very reliable for an engaging 4-star sci-fi potboiler.
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Feb 4, 2020 22:29
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Bhodi posted:Is this the body horror story about trying to earn technological relics by transiting an inscrutable alien labyrinth / testing place? Man, I loved that story. So good. That's Diamond Dogs, yeah. I also thought it had a particularly good ending for that kind of mystery that revolves around what could possibly be at the top of the tower - you don't get to find out in that story itself, it just ends with the narrator stuck in his hosed up cyborg dog body trying to find a way back to the tower planet, but then in the next story there's a throwaway line about this alien WMD which says that according to rumour it was found at the top of a mysterious tower, so that implies that maybe he got there in the end.
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Feb 4, 2020 22:45
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freebooter posted:That's Diamond Dogs, yeah. I also thought it had a particularly good ending for that kind of mystery that revolves around what could possibly be at the top of the tower - you don't get to find out in that story itself, it just ends with the narrator stuck in his hosed up cyborg dog body trying to find a way back to the tower planet, but then in the next story there's a throwaway line about this alien WMD which says that according to rumour it was found at the top of a mysterious tower, so that implies that maybe he got there in the end. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 22:50
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Black Griffon posted:I also adore big dumb object stories. What's your favorite (and everyone else's too)? Algis Budrys, Rogue Moon. The characters in it are strangely dysfunctional, but when you consider what the object needs to explore it, it somewhat makes sense. I wouldn't say the novel completely succeeds, but it's certainly the best one of its kind that I've read. I like that it avoids easy answers.
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Feb 5, 2020 05:24
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Anyone tried Peter Clines new one Terminus? It's another Threshold novel. I really liked 14 and The Fold, but Dead Moon was so boring and bad I'm hesitant.
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Feb 5, 2020 10:04
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Deptfordx posted:Anyone tried Peter Clines new one Terminus? Don't say that, I just bought Dead Moon. That being said, I'm very down for a new Threshold novel. e: huh. apparently not available in the US
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Feb 5, 2020 11:19
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Dead moon was kinda boring for the first 1/4th or so, but picks up into batshit crazy pretty fast and gets fairly fun.
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Feb 5, 2020 17:11
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I really don't like the prose in This is how you lose the time war. I don't know what it is but it's just boring, even though the premise is exciting.
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Feb 5, 2020 21:36
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