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mareep posted:Looking for: Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time and Shards of Earth (some Becky Chambers stuff done well in SoE, imo) serieses fit the bill and are my standard page turning sci fi recs. Have you read The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu? That series is like a steampunk fantasy epic with silk and bamboo instead of brass and coal. Silkpunk is the term I guess! The whole quadrilogy is just an excellent series of epic fantasy novels for grownups. Personally, I haven’t been able to put down these public domain sci fi books: The meh: Dracula The Isle of Dr. Moreau Journey to the Center of the Earth The good: Around the World in 80 Days The Picture of Dorian Gray The Master and Margarita Frankenstein The Death of Ivan Ilyich The Metamorphosis All of these old books have been available as Librivox recordings, sometimes very professionally done! I just search my podcast app for the title and pick a couple to see if the quality is any good.
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Oct 10, 2023 15:01
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Memoirs of life in Gaza, anyone? Or the West Bank but preferably Gazan writers.
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Oct 11, 2023 15:51
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Enders Game
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Oct 14, 2023 06:19
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The Murderbot novellas are good, and they are free if you’ve got Audible Plus or whatever the subscription service is. They’re short(3hrs or so) though, so the price/length ratio isn’t that favorable if you have to buy them.
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Oct 14, 2023 09:45
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Fiction set in South Asia. Just read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies trilogy and I want more. Probably any genre, but less depressing is better.
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Oct 14, 2023 18:29
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Chas McGill posted:Fiction set in South Asia. Just read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies trilogy and I want more. Probably any genre, but less depressing is better. More Southeast Asian but… Ken Liu’s stuff that I just mentioned. Kusamakura is funny and kind of bittersweet It’s Kim Stanley Robinson but The Years of Rice and Salt is one of his best works, imo. Caveat that it’s a white American writing an alternate history mostly taking place in SE Asia and North Africa.
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Oct 14, 2023 18:39
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Chas McGill posted:Fiction set in South Asia. Just read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies trilogy and I want more. Probably any genre, but less depressing is better. Midnight’s Children can hardly be avoided when considering South Asia. It’s really good. If you want genre, River of Gods by Ian McDonald is a different take on sprawling, set in India on the brink of an explosion. It’s interesting how McDonald wrote it in 2000 and decided on the three main themes to be AI, non-binary people and climate change.
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Oct 14, 2023 19:02
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Chas McGill posted:Fiction set in South Asia. Just read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies trilogy and I want more. Probably any genre, but less depressing is better. Sci-fi? The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is very good. quote:The Windup Girl is set in 23rd-century Thailand. Global warming has raised the levels of world's oceans, carbon fuel sources have become depleted, and manually wound springs are used as energy storage devices. Biotechnology is dominant and megacorporations (called calorie companies) like AgriGen, PurCal and RedStar control food production through 'genehacked' seeds, and use bioterrorism, private armies and economic hitmen to create markets for their products. Frequent catastrophes, such as deadly and widespread plagues and illness, caused by genetically modified crops and mutant pests, ravage entire populations. The natural genetic seed stock of the world's plants has been almost completely supplanted by those that are genetically engineered to be sterile, forcing farmers to buy new seeds from the calorie companies every season.
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Oct 14, 2023 20:17
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Chas McGill posted:Fiction set in South Asia. Just read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies trilogy and I want more. Probably any genre, but less depressing is better. I'm a big fan of Vikram Seth
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Oct 14, 2023 22:37
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Thanks, I've picked up Midnight's Children (which I somehow haven't read) and A Suitable Boy. In the same vein, I just finished Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka. I have no interest in cricket and very little knowledge of Sri Lankan politics, so it was simultaneously entertaining and confusing. It aims to be a book even the cricket-ignorant can enjoy, which is true while also feeling like a lot of the richness is lost without knowledge. The writing and sense of place is good, but the unreliable narrator is tough to like at times. He's an alcoholic, dirty old uncle with some 'of his time' views on women etc. So, I guess it's a qualified recommendation for anyone else looking for some fiction from that part of the world. It seems essential if you also like cricket. Chas McGill fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Oct 16, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2023 18:11
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tuyop posted:It’s Kim Stanley Robinson but The Years of Rice and Salt is one of his best works, imo. Caveat that it’s a white American writing an alternate history mostly taking place in SE Asia and North Africa. Any top tier (no mids) historical fiction for someone who loves (and has read basically all of) Mary Renault (my absolute fave), Alfred Duggan, Gore Vidal, Robert Graves...so all dead people  Pressfields and Shaaras need not apply. I loved them as a teen but I'm trying to find some poo poo whose prose shines rather than just like "hey not bad!". Maybe I've already gotten to those people. I've already got Colleen McCullough/John Williams/Mika Waltari/Kristin Lavransdatter on the general to-do list, just haven't tried any of their stuff yet. lmk if you think any of them kinda fit that level and i'll just start on one of theirs. Maybe it's time to finally read A God Strolling in the Cool of the Evening or Sudden Death. I've already read Manda Scott's Boudica series btw (not that I'd say it necessarily really fits the sort of quality of writing I'm looking for). Fun and epic even though it loses steam. Read The Moor's Account (pretty good). Also pretty sure I've read every Calvino and Eco that applies. Already familiar with Patrick O'Brian. Maybe there ain't nothing left.
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Oct 18, 2023 09:08
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Frans G. Bengtsson's The Long Ships is unimpeachable For ultra literary, Hermann Broch's The Death of Virgil James Ellroy basically writes historical fiction from American Tabloid onwards if the 30s to 60s aren't too recent for you Going to dip into George RR Martin's recs (He's got pretty good taste no matter what else you can say about him) Martin Druon's The Accursed King series People here love Howard Pyle even if his stuff is for children Frank Yerby Rosemary Hawley Jarman Sharon Kay Penman Edit: Maybe Dorothy Dunnet? fez_machine fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 11:03
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Seconding The Long Ships. John Williams' Augustus is very good (I assume that's the Williams novel you had in mind) and will be well-received by someone who liked Renault. In the same vein, try Memoirs of Hadrian by Yourcenar. You don't mention Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy -- I've only read the first one, but it was very good. Colleen McCullough, in my opinion, is a step below some of the other authors listed but is still good. Penman writes interesting, evocative fiction without much bodice ripping, but not super literary. A little out of the time period of the others, but Le Carre's best novels are absolutely fantastic. Try The Spy Who Came in from the Cold first, and if you like it, work forward in publication order from there. They are definitively not airport-quality spy fiction. In my opinion, they are as much superior to normal spy novels as the Aubrey/Maturin books are superior to normal adventure novels.
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Oct 18, 2023 20:26
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What are some good reads, preferably with audiobook version, about the east coast Italian mob during their peak? I'm going through Five Families by Raab and want more
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Oct 24, 2023 20:18
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Spaced God posted:What are some good reads, preferably with audiobook version, about the east coast Italian mob during their peak? I'm going through Five Families by Raab and want more
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Oct 24, 2023 20:33
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Punkin Spunkin posted:ill add that this was a huge caveat for me to the point I found it obnoxious and stopped reading around when the samurai goes to america and meets with the Kusamakura, it was getting pretty corny but it's a bummer because before that i found it incredibly compelling, I just preferred all the interesting cycles of reincarnation and the first few "books" Baudolini by Umberto Eco is very good. Cool mix of medieval history, including north Italian city state wars, Barbarossa’s crusade through Constantinople and into Turkey and an interesting take on Prester John and some other medieval myths.
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Oct 24, 2023 22:01
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Just got back from a trip to England and realized how ignorant I am of their history. For example, I vaguely know about the wives of Henry the Sixth (but it might be Henry the Eighth?) but I had no idea there was an entire civil war in the 17th century. So, recommendations for a well written, engaging book that does a survey of at least 1066 through to the 20th Century? Ideally on Kindle. Thanks!
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Oct 25, 2023 15:20
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Only need a book on people involved in this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_latrine_disaster
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Oct 25, 2023 15:38
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Ur-fart
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Oct 25, 2023 19:03
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should've mentioned I'd read Baudolino and The Long Ships, both faves of mine (love the poet-warriors of the latter, very Romance of the Three Kingdoms) some really great recommendations here though yall, I appreciate it. Gonna push Wolf Hall and Augustus to the front too (both of which I had on my Kindle but I just wasn't super sure whether they were worth starting). I love James Ellroy yeah, read all his L.A. fiction, just never started up his Underworld USA series, guess I really should.
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Oct 26, 2023 01:17
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Peter Ackroyd and Simon Schama both write serviceable multipart histories of England.
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Oct 26, 2023 01:36
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I kinda hate Simon Schama but he does write in great detail.
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Oct 26, 2023 01:49
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regulargonzalez posted:Just got back from a trip to England and realized how ignorant I am of their history. For example, I vaguely know about the wives of Henry the Sixth (but it might be Henry the Eighth?) but I had no idea there was an entire civil war in the 17th century. The English and their History by Robert Tombs Goodreads check some of the reviews, see if it's your speed
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Oct 26, 2023 06:51
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Leraika posted:Any of Ursula le Guin's sci-fi books (particularly Lathe of Heaven, Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, and Always Coming Home) are a great read. Thank you for this. Just finished Lathe of Heaven and I think I'm temporarily insane.
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Oct 26, 2023 12:34
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Upsidads posted:Only need a book on people involved in this VelociBacon posted:Thank you for this. Just finished Lathe of Heaven and I think I'm temporarily insane. Careful what you dream! Thinking next BotM will be Rocannon's World, just FYI
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Oct 26, 2023 12:55
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VelociBacon posted:Thank you for this. Just finished Lathe of Heaven and I think I'm temporarily insane. Now you should check out Dick's Ubik or A Scanner Darkly.
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Oct 26, 2023 13:38
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Upsidads posted:Only need a book on people involved in this The Enlatrination of Erfurt, or the Bal des Merdents.
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Oct 26, 2023 13:47
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When it collapsed I assume for the survivors it must have been the loudest sound they heard outside of lightning. It must have been traumatic to all
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Oct 26, 2023 16:34
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Punkin Spunkin posted:ill add that this was a huge caveat for me to the point I found it obnoxious and stopped reading around when the samurai goes to america and meets with the Kusamakura, it was getting pretty corny but it's a bummer because before that i found it incredibly compelling, I just preferred all the interesting cycles of reincarnation and the first few "books" I haven't read them since I was too young to really differentiate prose quality, but maybe James Michener or Edward Rutherfurd?
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Oct 26, 2023 21:12
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My mom's favorite book ever is The Cabinet of Curiosities, 2002. No relation, near as I know, to the del Toro series. Knowing that she's read all of the Preston/Child collabs, do you all have recommendations? I reckon she likes spooky thrillers with subtler supernatural elements.
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Oct 27, 2023 06:52
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Any novels or short stories that express the power and joy of music?
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Oct 27, 2023 15:21
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FPyat posted:Any novels or short stories that express the power and joy of music? Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for a New Day is about the joy of live music told through a critique of the music industry and gig economy in the near future. Lots of people like this book, it won the nebula, but I didn’t really get into it. A bit too YA for my tastes and I also don’t like live music, especially not the kind in the book.
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Oct 27, 2023 15:57
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FPyat posted:Any novels or short stories that express the power and joy of music? Popular Hits of the Showa Era
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Oct 27, 2023 16:50
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FPyat posted:Any novels or short stories that express the power and joy of music? Light from Uncommon Stars has that as a big theme. It's definitely a very scifi/magical realism book, so I really enjoyed it, but it's not a grounded and realistic thing if that's what you're after.
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Oct 27, 2023 17:14
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FPyat posted:Any novels or short stories that express the power and joy of music? Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera comes to mind.
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Oct 27, 2023 17:38
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:Popular Hits of the Showa Era
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Oct 27, 2023 18:29
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FPyat posted:Any novels or short stories that express the power and joy of music? Vikram Seth's An Equal Music
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Oct 27, 2023 21:19
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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:Light from Uncommon Stars has that as a big theme. It's definitely a very scifi/magical realism book, so I really enjoyed it, but it's not a grounded and realistic thing if that's what you're after. Selachian posted:Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera comes to mind. These are the two that spring to mind, but yeah, not grounded and realistic for either
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Oct 27, 2023 23:51
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Kvlt! posted:read it its literally everything you want and is excellent
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Oct 28, 2023 00:27
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Is there a good single volume history of Israel, or failing that just the founding/early years of Israel? Preferably one that acknowledges the humanity of Palestinians, no Exodus-style blowjobs
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Oct 28, 2023 01:54
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