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Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora is generational, don't know if that's been recommended yet
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Jul 16, 2020 21:32
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Forty Thousand in Gehenna by C.J. Cherryh features multiple generations as well. Children of Time is another one regularly recommended here spanning a long time period. E: beaten on the second one but it is a great book.
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Jul 17, 2020 03:23
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John Brunner's Crucible of Time is another one set over a long period, basically tracing the enlightenment and industrial revolution of an alien race.
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Jul 17, 2020 03:32
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Kestral posted:Would love recommendations for more generational stories in SF or fantasy. I saw Centennial early in life and for all its faults, I have never stopped being fascinated by that sort of story. I would recommend Mike Resnick's "BIrthright: The Book of Man." It is a series of short stories that covers 18,000 years of future history of mankind. It's a fairly quick read and covers different eras of human history. The book itself is sort of the Bible/background history for most of his far future books like Santiago and his second to last trilogy which was basically the Dirty Dozen with filthy aliens, in space. It has a short story epilogue as well but even the description is super spoilery regarding Birthright, Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge.
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Jul 17, 2020 06:54
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fez_machine posted:(also maybe Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr but I haven't read it)
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Jul 17, 2020 09:54
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Dragon's Egg features multiple generations set over a relatively short period of time (from a human perspective). Maybe a slight bend of the question, but really worth reading.
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Jul 17, 2020 16:22
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A Little Hatred (Age of Madness #1) by Joe Abercrombie - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MJ656W9/ Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016CQUL4U/ Will Wight Elder Empire Series - Free Of Sea and Shadow (Sea #1) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RE55XXS/ Of Dawn and Darkness (Sea #2) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01915038I/ Of Kings and Killers (Sea #3) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087N5RV2X/ Of Shadow and Sea (Shadow #1) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RE68P8C/ Of Darkness and Dawn (Shadow #2) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013Q4KQZA/ Of Killers and Kings (Shadow #3) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087N4L8JW/
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Jul 17, 2020 17:24
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pradmer posted:Will Wight Elder Empire Series - Free I like the idea here, with two parallel series from different perspectives. Has anyone here read them? How are they?
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Jul 17, 2020 19:49
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a foolish pianist posted:I like the idea here, with two parallel series from different perspectives. Has anyone here read them? How are they? It's an interesting gimmick but my overwhelming take away is the story would have been much tighter told as a trilogy with alternating viewpoints. Felt like a slog at the end. Story itself is take it or leave it. Fluffy, without substance, but inoffensive. Reads more like a comic book.
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Jul 17, 2020 20:00
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a foolish pianist posted:I like the idea here, with two parallel series from different perspectives. Has anyone here read them? How are they? It's more a gimmick than a great plot device but no worse than fantasy bricks constantly shifting POV
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Jul 18, 2020 00:32
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The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E0V112/ The Magician King (Magicians #2) by Lev Grossman - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XFZ8X2/
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Jul 18, 2020 17:24
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Fell Fire posted:Read through the latest Lady Astronaut novel that came out yesterday. I just finished it myself. This was really good, a definite leap forwards from the first two. I liked the first two well enough, but there's some really good stuff in this one, and they're people moments, not cool space moments. I'll cheerfully explore as much of the solar system as the author wants to take us to. I didn't mind the reveal in the epilogue at all. If there's one thing that was made clear about her over the course of the novel, is that Nicole is an absolutely irresistible force when she sets her mind to something. If she decided she wanted that, she was going to get that. I'm upping the series to a strong recommendation, and look for her short stories, I've read a few and they're good. She's not at the top tier yet, but her trajectory is nominal.
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Jul 18, 2020 23:45
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Another option for the alien pov novel is one I picked up a couple days ago. The Humans by Matt Haig. Basically, a guy solves an unsolvable math problem, gets killed and replaced by aliens, and suddenly it's sorta liking earth.
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Jul 19, 2020 03:42
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Still reading the SFL archives. The absolutely cruelest thing you could do to a year 1982 Star Wars megafan would be showing them the two official trailers for 2019's The Mandalorian and then just vanishing. The most hilarious thing you could do to a year 1982 Star Wars megafan is show them under a NDA (Non-Disclosure-Agreement) Star Wars: The Phantom Menace complete and uncut.
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Jul 19, 2020 15:32
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The more things change in the publishing industry, the more things fail to change in the publishing industry. SFL Archives ------------------------------ Date: 20 Sep 82 17:11:03-EDT (Mon) From: David Axler <axler.upenn@UDel-Relay> To: sf-lovers at Sri-Csl Subject: Sequel Failure An entry in a recent issue of SFL tried to answer M. Melkar's question as to why sequels are often less good than the initial books. Without knocking the answer propounded, I'd suggest that a major reason is that which Norman Spinrad has discussed at length in his column "Stayin' Alive," which appears in LOCUS (and, I've heard, will soon be turned into a book). Spinrad's thesis, essentially, is that the current state of the sf publishing industry (which differs in some ways from the "normal" publ. ind.) is pushing authors into writing novels which have the potential for extension via sequels, and that the necessity of creating such sequelae when one is (a) sick of the characters and/or (b) has said all one wanted to say with them is a problem that needs curing. He feels that all segments of the sf world (authors, readers, fans, publishers, agents, other media, &c.) are to blame for this, though in differing degrees; the basic agent of the trouble, though, is the need for the author to pay his or her bills. I know that some SFL readers are involved in the creation of sf in its many forms, and would be interested in hearing their opinions on Spinrad's theory (which I've severely compressed, though hopefully w/o misstatement). ------------------------------
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Jul 19, 2020 19:32
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I feel the need for a rousing space opera, and I'm feeling like I need some of that hard sci-fi. Give me something reallll far from the here and now. It's cool if Earth gets mentioned and the protagonists are humans, but set on Earth or near Earth? Miss me with that, this place stinks. Our local star cluster with names I recognize, like Revelation Space, that's about as close as I want to get. Maybe not even that close. Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought novels are about the right distance. That said, I don't think I need any Mil-SciFi in my life right now. I'm good on that.
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Jul 20, 2020 05:22
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Red Crown posted:I feel the need for a rousing space opera, and I'm feeling like I need some of that hard sci-fi. Give me something reallll far from the here and now. It's cool if Earth gets mentioned and the protagonists are humans, but set on Earth or near Earth? Miss me with that, this place stinks. Our local star cluster with names I recognize, like Revelation Space, that's about as close as I want to get. Maybe not even that close. Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought novels are about the right distance. That said, I don't think I need any Mil-SciFi in my life right now. I'm good on that. Scott Westerfeld, The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds. Future galactic empire, earth is a legend. The ruling class is made immortal via a medical procedure of undeath. The galactic senate is divided into "pink" and "grey" factions, who oppose or support this immortality. The empire is at war with a transhuman cult who fetishize evolution and worship planet-size AIs. The two books of the series follow many characters but primarily the romance between a pink senator and a grey frigate captain. There is a good deal of military in the setting but I would not call this mil-sf.
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Jul 20, 2020 05:50
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Red Crown posted:I feel the need for a rousing space opera, and I'm feeling like I need some of that hard sci-fi. Give me something reallll far from the here and now. It's cool if Earth gets mentioned and the protagonists are humans, but set on Earth or near Earth? Miss me with that, this place stinks. Our local star cluster with names I recognize, like Revelation Space, that's about as close as I want to get. Maybe not even that close. Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought novels are about the right distance. That said, I don't think I need any Mil-SciFi in my life right now. I'm good on that. Yoon Ha Lee's hexarchate series should scratch that itch nicely, it's got nothing at all to do with Earth cultures or this part of the galaxy. It's got all sorts of weird cultural details and sufficiently advanced technology to get really weird. Becky Chambers' series has Earth and Mars in it. They're both waaaay over there and all the interesting stuff happens very far from them. The books are maybe too low-key to count as space opera but they're as exactly opposite to milsf as you can get. Iain Banks' Culture series. Earth gets a visit in one of the short stories, but nobody sane wants anything to do with the place. Use Of Weapons or Player of Games would do for a starting point. A seriously post-scarcity culture dabbles in violating the Prime Directive to stay busy.
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Jul 20, 2020 06:51
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Kate Elliott has a new space opera out, Unconquerable Sun. Basic premise is genderbent Alexander the Great in space. I saw someone elsewhere compare it favorably to the Vorkosigan Saga.
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Jul 20, 2020 07:27
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It's probably too close to MilSF but you might enjoy Walter Jon Williams "Dread Empire's Fall" series, starting with The Praxis. Humanity and other species were long ago conquered by a brutal and tyrannical species, but the last of them has now died, and what will happen to their unchanging empire?
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Jul 20, 2020 07:38
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Neal Ashers stuff is worth a look for space opera if you haven't already. The polity books are mostly pretty engaging. Spatterjay as a setting is my favourite.
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Jul 20, 2020 07:51
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CJ Cherryh's Alliance-Union stuff takes place far, far from Earth, though I'm not sure it could be said to be 'space opera' exactly, it's not usually very light-hearted.
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Jul 20, 2020 12:43
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Red Crown posted:I feel the need for a rousing space opera, and I'm feeling like I need some of that hard sci-fi. Give me something reallll far from the here and now. It's cool if Earth gets mentioned and the protagonists are humans, but set on Earth or near Earth? Miss me with that, this place stinks. Our local star cluster with names I recognize, like Revelation Space, that's about as close as I want to get. Maybe not even that close. Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought novels are about the right distance. That said, I don't think I need any Mil-SciFi in my life right now. I'm good on that. A Memory Called Empire is pretty good. But I don't know if it fits the space opera genre completely.
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Jul 20, 2020 12:50
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The Shoal Sequence, starting with Stealing Light, by Gary Gibson is galaxy spanning space opera, where humanity is trying to locate an FTL drive not made by the only race that controls FTL. Lots of exploration, strange worlds and big dumb objects, and some pew pew as well. The Xenowealth saga, starting with Crystal Rain, by Tobias S. Buckell, is also a great space opera, even though the first book is only happening on one planet. The series is set sequentially in the same universe with one consistent character in all of them (so far - haven't read the last book yet). What I really enjoyed about the first book was the setting of Aztec style culture (it's a bit bloody with sacrifices and whatnot), and also that the author is of Caribbean descent which really shines through in all of the books.
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Jul 20, 2020 13:54
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Red Crown posted:I feel the need for a rousing space opera, and I'm feeling like I need some of that hard sci-fi. Give me something reallll far from the here and now. It's cool if Earth gets mentioned and the protagonists are humans, but set on Earth or near Earth? Miss me with that, this place stinks. Our local star cluster with names I recognize, like Revelation Space, that's about as close as I want to get. Maybe not even that close. Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought novels are about the right distance. That said, I don't think I need any Mil-SciFi in my life right now. I'm good on that. I wouldn't call it "hard" but Philip Reeve's YA series Railhead is certainly rousing. The gimmick is that travel between different planets/stars is done by sapient trains that go through teleportation gateways, and nobody can remember whether the gateways and trains were built by ancient aliens or the mysterious AIs that benevolently rule the human race. It sounds silly but he really makes it work.
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Jul 20, 2020 14:01
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mllaneza posted:Yoon Ha Lee's hexarchate series should scratch that itch nicely, it's got nothing at all to do with Earth cultures or this part of the galaxy. It's got all sorts of weird cultural details and sufficiently advanced technology to get really weird. Yeah but it's got a whole bunch of military stuff.
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Jul 20, 2020 14:13
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Major Ryan posted:Dragon's Egg features multiple generations set over a relatively short period of time (from a human perspective). Maybe a slight bend of the question, but really worth reading. "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon does this also, but it's a short story.
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Jul 20, 2020 15:01
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Someone mentioned House of Suns earlier, and I highly recommend it if you dig Vinge. I read it immediately following Zones of Thought and it scratched the same itch.
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Jul 20, 2020 15:32
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fritz posted:Yeah but it's got a whole bunch of military stuff. Good catch, the intrigue and weird calendrical stuff overpowers the milsf so it isn't really on my "milsf list".
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Jul 20, 2020 16:44
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Speaking of, I just finished the hexarchate trilogy (yesterday in fact) and overall it was pretty decent. Books 1 and 2 were OK, but book 3 moves. The majority of it felt like the last 30% of the other books for pacing. Book 2 I found the no internal thoughts of Cheris/Jedao as very annoying as it seems like that was supposed to be some big reveal that no, Jedao did not take over Cheris. Even though this was explicitly said that's not how that works in the previous book. Book 1 specifically ended with Cheris having Jedao's memories and deciding to carry out his plan. Anyway, decent read, but I count it much closer to typical fantasy than scifi (certainly not hard scifi). Sure it takes place in space, but it could just as easily take place on a large continent and the tech is literally magic supported by ritual.
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Jul 20, 2020 16:58
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The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FO6NPIO/ The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003JTHY76/
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Jul 20, 2020 17:57
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pradmer posted:
Anyone read these? The sample pages were pretty good but it's not on sale in the UK.
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Jul 20, 2020 19:12
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I read a few of them but gave up on the series when it just didn't get any better. Apparently I bailed before some character revealed she had a tiny vagina for some reason. That alone tells me it was the right decision. The first book is ok, but be prepared for the main character to CONTINUALLY refer to himself as fat. He has no other traits, he is the fat person. He has trouble doing things, you see, because he is fat.
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Jul 20, 2020 20:05
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I read a few of them but gave up on the series when it just didn't get any better. Apparently I bailed before some character revealed she had a tiny vagina for some reason. That alone tells me it was the right decision. 
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Jul 20, 2020 20:49
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Nondescript Van posted:Book 2 I found the no internal thoughts of Cheris/Jedao as very annoying as it seems like that was supposed to be some big reveal that no, Jedao did not take over Cheris. Even though this was explicitly said that's not how that works in the previous book. Book 1 specifically ended with Cheris having Jedao's memories and deciding to carry out his plan. In book 1 it's left very ambiguous what eating Jedao's corpseglass would do to someone, and it ends with paragraphs like this: quote:She had gone to a lot of trouble to put herself into the black cradle, one bad option among many worse, so she would have time to run her campaign against the heptarchate. But she couldn’t win her own war. The key to calendrical warfare was mathematics, and the only mathematician she had access to, Nirai Kujen, was more monstrous than she was. Using Cheris's pronouns, but Jedao's thoughts. She also refers to herself as "both Cheris and Jedao" at least once. Given that, I do think it's reasonable to wonder throughout most of book 2 whether you're looking at Cheris with Jedao's memories, Jedao with Cheris's memories, or a sort of Cheris/Jedao hybrid that isn't really either of them, but has both of their memories.
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Jul 20, 2020 21:09
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Apparently I bailed before some character revealed she had a tiny vagina for some reason. And it looks like she isn't the only one. 
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Jul 20, 2020 21:13
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I read a few of them but gave up on the series when it just didn't get any better. Apparently I bailed before some character revealed she had a tiny vagina for some reason. That alone tells me it was the right decision. Yeah I got through like 4 or 5 of them on momentum alone but they really don't improve. For me, Brent Weeks other assassin trilogy was a lot better than this one imo, although also not like, amazing.
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Jul 20, 2020 21:48
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ToxicFrog posted:In book 1 it's left very ambiguous what eating Jedao's corpseglass would do to someone, and it ends with paragraphs like this: The reveal was "Cheris acting like Jedao, not Jedao" which is exactly that. I see that not as Jedao's thoughts, just his memories. The only name used at the end is Cheris and the only pronoun used is she. There is never a question if it is just Jedao as he is not mentioned at all in the final chapter. Cheris with Jedao memories and Cheris / Jedao hybrid is the exact same thing: 1 person with memories of 2 people. Searching through, what was stated about the carrion glass is much more ambiguous than I remembered, but while she is going through and eating the glass, she is fully aware she is ingesting memories. How much of a person is just memories is completely debatable, but I didn't see what happened as "Jedao took over," especially with the next line after what you quoted be "I’m dead, she thought, very clearly, as I wanted to be, but I’m alive enough to carry on the war." But perhaps I accidentally came to the correct conclusion. Hindsight maybe.
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Jul 20, 2020 21:59
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The twist is a twist to the characters in the book. It doesn’t need to be a twist for the reader. They can know the whole time and the story still works well (better, even?)
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Jul 20, 2020 22:12
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I have not read much SciFi in my life, but on a whim I picked up Max Barry's Providence and found it really enjoyable, are the rest of his books good, is there anything you guys can recommend like Providence?
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Jul 21, 2020 00:28
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