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pseudanonymous posted:A Canticle for Leibowitz Great book but I will arbitrarily exclude it as a nuclear apocalypse book and part of a top five that includes on the beach.
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Mar 19, 2020 02:23
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shrike82 posted:Are there any good virus/pandemic/apocalypse books people would recommend? The Hot Zone. Alibek's book on the Soviet bioweapons program.
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Mar 19, 2020 02:25
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buffalo all day posted:Great book but I will arbitrarily exclude it as a nuclear apocalypse book and part of a top five that includes on the beach. I was about to say.
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Mar 19, 2020 02:31
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I've been singing the praises of Eifelheim in this thread for a while. Pandemic plus first contact plus excellent medieval historical fiction, it's all great. I actually ordered The Stand just the other day because of all this plus I haven't read it in fifteen years. I remember the first third of it (all the stuff actually relating to the pandemic) being really, really great. As usual King lets his imagination lead him down the garden path as the book goes on, but that first act is tight. From memory. General Battuta posted:Doomsday Book, you’ll cry I read this recently and felt a solid 60% of it was about people placing a telephone call, telling their secretary to hold their calls, telling somebody they were tying up the "trunk line," etc.
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Mar 19, 2020 02:53
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freebooter posted:
do not read blackout/all clear whatever you do.
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Mar 19, 2020 03:05
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freebooter posted:I actually ordered The Stand just the other day because of all this plus I haven't read it in fifteen years. I remember the first third of it (all the stuff actually relating to the pandemic) being really, really great. Depends on if you ordered the original published version or the unabridged version. The unabridged version is...not so tight, even in that first third, and has always been my goto for "THIS IS WHY YOU loving NEED AN EDITOR!"
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Mar 19, 2020 03:10
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That's weird! Because I think the unabridged version was what I started reading as, like, a 12-year-old or something, and was full of all the parts I found totally fascinating. Then I think I read the whole book in full in the original version a few years later and thought it was missing some stuff, especially with the CO of the military base the virus escapes from. Anyway I've ordered the unabridged version because I think that's the only version that's actually still in print, and the Abebooks search for second hand copies was weirdly broken - turning up all kinds of King books except the one I was looking for.
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Mar 19, 2020 03:14
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ulmont posted:Depends on if you ordered the original published version or the unabridged version. The unabridged version is...not so tight, even in that first third, and has always been my goto for "THIS IS WHY YOU loving NEED AN EDITOR!" This is why I didn’t want to step in as a constant reader. Just watch the movie instead. About 1/3 of it.
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Mar 19, 2020 04:56
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freebooter posted:That's weird! Because I think the unabridged version was what I started reading as, like, a 12-year-old or something, and was full of all the parts I found totally fascinating. Then I think I read the whole book in full in the original version a few years later and thought it was missing some stuff, especially with the CO of the military base the virus escapes from. The original version opens with a car running off the road and slamming into a gas station because the driver is sick with Captain Trips. Things spiral downhill from there. The unabridged version opens with yet another day at the office and takes, IIRC (and it has been quite some time) like 5 chapters of boring minutia to get to the same car crash. ...I mean, if you enjoy that bit, have fun, but I would certainly not describe it as "tight."
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Mar 19, 2020 05:00
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ulmont posted:The original version opens with a car running off the road and slamming into a gas station because the driver is sick with Captain Trips. Things spiral downhill from there. And this is the part people like about the stand. Dying in church for maximum irony.
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Mar 19, 2020 05:11
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BaldDwarfOnPCP posted:And this is the part people like about the stand. All after the car crash, I think.
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Mar 19, 2020 05:17
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ulmont posted:The original version opens with a car running off the road and slamming into a gas station because the driver is sick with Captain Trips. Things spiral downhill from there. I'll report back. I think it was at least a solid 15 years ago that I read any of it. We'll see if it can take the crown from 11/22/63 for "jesus christ this could've been so much better if you trimmed 300 pages"
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Mar 19, 2020 07:38
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Ex Heroes series by Peter Cline is pretty good. Superheroes + zombie apocalypse. Outpost series by Adam Baker is awesome (save for Terminal, that one kinda sucked). Technozombie weird poo poo apocalypse. Various stories of people caught in it, but no real overarching characters as I can recall. White Fire by Brian Keene is pretty great. It's more of a novella than a novel. Still, really liked it. Goes from "Oh everything is great and normal and wonderful" to "Ohh, oh gently caress." in a terrific way. First and Second activation are interesting. Sort of pandemic/apocalypse but it's more of a signal that makes people crazy than a virus making zombies. Like Cell but better, if that makes sense.
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Mar 19, 2020 07:39
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I recommended Doomsday Book a while ago. Yeah, it can drag in spots but it's also great at communicating the end-of-the-world feeling people had during the Black Death. Seconding Station Eleven as well. Might also enjoy (if that's the right word) Norman Spinrad's Journal of the Plague Years, which was inspired by the 80s AIDS epidemic. (For nonfiction on the same topic, you want Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On.)
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Mar 19, 2020 13:31
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Selachian posted:I recommended Doomsday Book a while ago. Yeah, it can drag in spots but it's also great at communicating the end-of-the-world feeling people had during the Black Death. I don't hate Doomsday Book or anything, but because I read them in quick succession... I just strongly, strongly recommend Eifelheim as the superior black death novel. One which is bafflingly underrated.
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Mar 19, 2020 13:53
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loved the replies you guys gave me when I asked for a generation ship novel. Anyone of you have a recc for a “settling a planet” book that came out recently? I’ve read Coyote and Legacy of Heorot, and I didn’t like the coyote ( the ending was stupid as heck), I loved Heorot. Anything 2000ish would be swell.
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Mar 19, 2020 14:39
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freebooter posted:I don't hate Doomsday Book or anything, but because I read them in quick succession... I just strongly, strongly recommend Eifelheim as the superior black death novel. One which is bafflingly underrated. Eifelhiem was great, and if Doomsday book is 75% as great, I’m sure it’ll be a swell read!
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Mar 19, 2020 14:40
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PawParole posted:loved the replies you guys gave me when I asked for a generation ship novel. Anyone of you have a recc for a “settling a planet” book that came out recently? Settling a planet: Cherryh's 40k in Gehenna. They drop off 40k settlers and supplies and then abandon them and it covers several generations as society breaks down. Also the local lizards are not simple animals.
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Mar 19, 2020 14:42
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Read it, and it was too plodding. If you have any other, more recent suggestions I’d love to hear it
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Mar 19, 2020 15:00
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Totally unrelated to the current conversation, but props to whoever recommended Recursion, book had one idea and then executed it really well and I am glad I read it even if it was a pretty quick read.
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Mar 19, 2020 16:33
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PawParole posted:Legacy of Heorot, and I didn’t like the coyote ( the ending was stupid as heck), I loved Heorot. Have you read the sequel to Legacy of Heorot? (Beowulf's Children, I think?) And there's a third, according to wiki, called Destiny's Road.
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Mar 19, 2020 19:56
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NinjaDebugger posted:Have you read the sequel to Legacy of Heorot? (Beowulf's Children, I think?) And there's a third, according to wiki, called Destiny's Road. Oh wow I'd forgotten Destiny's Road. Larry getting all libertine with his characters. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm no prude. I've read Heinlen. Also I think the thing about 40k in Gehenna is there are no protagonists and it takes generations for the story to play out. There are family names but don't get attached to a character. Canticle for Liebowitz does a similar thing. Especially if you read its sequel.
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Mar 19, 2020 20:17
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I'm in the minority who did not care for Station Eleven, found the characters and story rather boring and the central "because survival is insufficient" theme stupid and offensive. Decent writing, sure.
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Mar 19, 2020 21:18
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my bony fealty posted:I'm in the minority who did not care for Station Eleven, found the characters and story rather boring and the central "because survival is insufficient" theme stupid and offensive. Decent writing, sure. Well I for one will listen to a Shakespeare adjacent podcast until we can find some written Shakespeare or possibly Star Trek novels. I just hated the premise of Station Eleven and the opening but then it got good.
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Mar 19, 2020 21:30
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The Blade Itself (First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TOT9LDK/ Spin by Robert Charles Wilson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0016IXMWI/
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Mar 19, 2020 23:27
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By the way, on the post-apocalypse front, I forgot to also mention Riddley Walker, although it's post-nuclear rather than post-plague. So, read Riddley Walker.
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Mar 20, 2020 02:04
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Tor.com has this ridiculously charming short story A Guide for Working Breeds up right now: https://www.tor.com/2020/03/17/a-guide-for-working-breeds-vina-jie-min-prasad/
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Mar 20, 2020 02:53
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a foolish pianist posted:Tor.com has this ridiculously charming short story A Guide for Working Breeds up right now: This is delightful, but I am seriously disappointed in the lack of a link for the zero-g corgis in bowties video.
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Mar 20, 2020 03:24
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ulmont posted:The original version opens with a car running off the road and slamming into a gas station because the driver is sick with Captain Trips. Things spiral downhill from there. It's been years since I read the unabridged version (never read the original) and I remember it starting with the gas station crash as well.
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Mar 20, 2020 06:15
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a foolish pianist posted:Tor.com has this ridiculously charming short story A Guide for Working Breeds up right now:  I'm gonna have to see if that person wrote some more stories. Completely unrelated but saw this series was free on kindle at the moment, might be good, might suck, either way it's free. https://www.amazon.com/portal-migration/kindle-dbs/product/B07FKHMQVX/ Stupid_Sexy_Flander fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Mar 20, 2020 |
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Mar 20, 2020 06:38
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/fandom-for-robots/ http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasad_01_17/
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Mar 20, 2020 07:13
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PawParole posted:Read it, and it was too plodding. If you have any other, more recent suggestions I’d love to hear it Semiosis by Sue Burke. Generation-spanning story of human colonists learning to survive and accommodate themselves to alien lifeforms.
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Mar 20, 2020 10:50
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Solitair posted:It's been years since I read the unabridged version (never read the original) and I remember it starting with the gas station crash as well. The prologue is the dude escaping the lockdown on base, and chapter one is the crash at the Texaco station. After that, I think it shifts and covers Larry's party where he racks up the debt, Fran's mother, and that kind of thing, the background on the main characters, and that stuff plods a little, but I think it is necessary.
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Mar 20, 2020 11:49
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Selachian posted:By the way, on the post-apocalypse front, I forgot to also mention Riddley Walker, although it's post-nuclear rather than post-plague. So, read Riddley Walker. I'm reading this right now and it's real good snagged the one copy in my library system the day before they all shut down 
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Mar 20, 2020 20:09
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Last Policeman Trilogy (The Last Policeman, Countdown City, World of Trouble) by Ben Winters - $9 or $3 each https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074C7W72F I'm actually reading the 2nd one now and they're pretty great so far. Interesting background setting for a mystery. Jade City by Fonda Lee - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XRCBRX8/ Looks interesting, the Godfather plus wuxia. Worth reading? The Corporate Wars Trilogy by Ken McLeod - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DC24GD2/ pradmer fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Mar 21, 2020 |
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Mar 21, 2020 00:23
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pradmer posted:Jade City by Fonda Lee - $1.99 This book is great, it was one of my favorite sff books whichever year it came out. Very solid take on a crime family novel imo. The sequel is pretty good too!
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Mar 21, 2020 00:32
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RIP ZEEZ
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Jade City is super good. The Godfather but with Kung Fu Wizards is 100% my jam. Haven't read the sequel yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
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Mar 21, 2020 00:38
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I stopped Jade City after several chapters. Maybe I should try again?
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Mar 21, 2020 03:07
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Even at $2.99 skip the Ken MacLeod Corporate Wars Trilogy bundle unless you're desperate for entertainment during COVID-19 lockdown. The interesting robotic entities that open the series quickly get shunted aside fast so MacLeod can re-fight all the ideological battles he lost in real life, and masturbate over full-immerson VR.
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Mar 21, 2020 03:11
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foutre posted:This book is great, it was one of my favorite sff books whichever year it came out. Very solid take on a crime family novel imo. The sequel is pretty good too! ...No Kindle version. Well, gently caress.
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Mar 21, 2020 11:31
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