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Jet Jaguar posted:I think I first encountered this book through either this thread of the Iain Banks one--such a great read. I've not read Cook's other SF work, Passage at Arms looks really interesting as well but I haven't read it. Do. Just enough SciFi handwaving to justify space submarines. Audible has it too if that's your preferred medium.
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Jan 5, 2015 04:48
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Darth Walrus posted:And it goes from aggravating to creepy when you notice how fond he is of having huge age-gaps between his couples, with some of the younger parties being way the gently caress underage. Someone might have gotten through to Hamilton, because the latest book of his in the commonwealth universe has Nigel, the smartest, most awesomest, most importantest totally not Gary Sue straight up reject the naive teenager he stumbles across by pretty much saying "lol, no way, I'm way too old for you". I also can't recall any gratuitous and unnecessary sex scenes. New editor perhaps?
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Jan 5, 2015 07:46
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He was too busy writing a garbage story about magic evil imaginary dream land to include the gratuitous creepy sex. What I'm saying is that Peter F. Hamilton is a terrible author.
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Jan 5, 2015 07:48
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Shakugan posted:Someone might have gotten through to Hamilton, because the latest book of his in the commonwealth universe has Nigel, the smartest, most awesomest, most importantest totally not Gary Sue straight up reject the naive teenager he stumbles across by pretty much saying "lol, no way, I'm way too old for you". I also can't recall any gratuitous and unnecessary sex scenes. I never thought of Nigel as a Gary Sue type of character. It's rather obvious that he is Steve Jobs and the other guy is Wozniak.
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Jan 5, 2015 15:03
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mcustic posted:I never thought of Nigel as a Gary Sue type of character. It's rather obvious that he is Steve Jobs and the other guy is Wozniak. Ozzie? I call him Wozzie just for that reason.
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Jan 5, 2015 16:00
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So I'm starting to think I like space opera rather than general sci fi. I like Elizabeth Moon's space opera a lot (Familias Regnant series, Vatta's War) as well as Iain M. Banks' Culture books. One thing that's clear is that I like gender-progressive societies. Maybe that's part of the appeal of sci fi for me. So, recommendations? Single books or series. I don't generally like short stories though, so not those.
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Jan 7, 2015 00:41
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If you want a space opera that does something interesting with gender, Ancillary Justice is the current go-to.
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Jan 7, 2015 00:44
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General Battuta posted:If you want a space opera that does something interesting with gender, Ancillary Justice is the current go-to. Yep, it's great. Sequel just came out too, but I haven't read it yet.
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Jan 7, 2015 00:51
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General Battuta posted:If you want a space opera that does something interesting with gender, Ancillary Justice is the current go-to. Spoiler alert: it doesn't actually do anything interesting with gender.
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Jan 7, 2015 00:55
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Hedrigall posted:Spoiler alert: it doesn't actually do anything interesting with gender. well "doing" anything with gender isn't really what I care about, but rather gender not really mattering, which Banks does really well and Moon does less directly (with gender being a thing that can be overcome). toe knee hand fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 01:01
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The protagonist in Ancillary Justice comes from a society without any concept of gender, just physical sex (which they don't really pay attention to), and she can't distinguish gender even in societies who have the concept, so she just calls everyone 'she'. It's a pretty cool effect.
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Jan 7, 2015 01:09
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General Battuta posted:The protagonist in Ancillary Justice comes from a society without any concept of gender, just physical sex (which they don't really pay attention to), and she can't distinguish gender even in societies who have the concept, so she just calls everyone 'she'. It's a pretty cool effect. That sounds cool and I will definitely read it (and probably get back to this thread with my thoughts on it). Cheers.
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Jan 7, 2015 01:11
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General Battuta posted:The protagonist in Ancillary Justice comes from a society without any concept of gender, just physical sex (which they don't really pay attention to), and she can't distinguish gender even in societies who have the concept, so she just calls everyone 'she'. It's a pretty cool effect. I didn't think about this while reading AJ, but maybe part of that is a joke on ships always being gendered female in English.
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Jan 7, 2015 03:12
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toe knee hand posted:So I'm starting to think I like space opera rather than general sci fi. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga might be intersting. It's not a gender-progessive society, but the tone of the books very much is. It's set in a deeply patriarchal society (after 400 years of no contact with the rest of the universe) a few decades after being thrown back into the wider galaxy, and after just fending off an invasion and occupation by a neighboring Empire. Main protagonist (after the first two books about his parents) is Miles, a very, very clever guy born a crippled dwarf in a warrior society. And unlike the description I just gave it's not dark at all, thanks to lots of humour throughout the series. Basically the story of said patriarchal society being dragged screaming and protesting into a gender-equal, gender progressive world by the Vorkosigan family and friends.
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Jan 7, 2015 07:48
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I loved the dense nature of The Dragon never sleeps. I loved that it was one book I get put off by a lot of SciFi authors doing 5+ book series. That's why I guess my book intake has dropped off recently.
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Jan 10, 2015 19:19
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Greataval posted:I loved the dense nature of The Dragon never sleeps. I loved that it was one book I get put off by a lot of SciFi authors doing 5+ book series. That's why I guess my book intake has dropped off recently. I just got done reading The Dragon Never Sleeps a couple days ago, and whoever compared it to Dune (more than just one person, IIRC) was spot on. Even past the surface (there's Houses,
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Jan 11, 2015 01:58
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I thought it was like Dune and when I poked around places like Goodreads, lots of other people saying it's like Dune. So yeah if you dig Dune check it out.
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Jan 11, 2015 13:16
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First trailer for the Syfy Expanse series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X5gXIQmY-E
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Jan 17, 2015 00:30
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Chairman Capone posted:First trailer for the Syfy Expanse series: This actually looks pretty good
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Jan 17, 2015 23:47
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Jerkface posted:This actually looks pretty good poo poo, this really looks good. I think I add the Expanse books to my reading list, so I'm not completely clueless when the TV series comes out.
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Jan 19, 2015 13:51
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Libluini posted:poo poo, this really looks good. I think I add the Expanse books to my reading list, so I'm not completely clueless when the TV series comes out. The world I saw in the trailer made up for it, but seeing Detective Miller (the dude in the hat) as theprimary focus was kind of weird, because he always struck me as a tertiary and almkost throwaway character, compared to the depth and growth of Captain Holden. I was wanting to see Amos gettin' all shooty. 
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Jan 20, 2015 05:25
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The best thing the TV show could do is kill off the core cast ASAP and let the guest characters run the narrative.
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Jan 20, 2015 06:10
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coyo7e posted:It's very much Firefly/Farscape over the course of several books, although it takes most of the first book to give enough buildup and exposition for it to truly reach that point. I was caught off-guard by how much of the series centers around "plucky crew of the questionably-legal spaceship with kind of more firepower than they ought to be packing." In the first book he's not that tertiary, I'd say. I actually really liked his scenes in the books.
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Jan 20, 2015 10:06
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General Battuta posted:The best thing the TV show could do is kill off the core cast ASAP and let the guest characters run the narrative. UN grandma and Bobbie TV show.
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Jan 20, 2015 13:31
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Decius posted:UN grandma and Bobbie TV show. This.
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Jan 20, 2015 15:29
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Who will be cast as Bobby? She's bigger than Brienne of Tarth and Samoan, iirc?
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Jan 20, 2015 16:12
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coyo7e posted:Who will be cast as Bobby? She's bigger than Brienne of Tarth and Samoan, iirc? Kristen Bell.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:32
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coyo7e posted:Who will be cast as Bobby? She's bigger than Brienne of Tarth and Samoan, iirc? I dunno, I just hope to gently caress that she looks like this:  and not like this:  Source: googling "Samoan woman".
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Jan 20, 2015 22:56
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coyo7e posted:Who will be cast as Bobby? She's bigger than Brienne of Tarth and Samoan, iirc? A 5'6" white woman with auburn hair
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Jan 21, 2015 00:18
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And the producers will say something about great young talent really connecting with modern viewers.
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Jan 21, 2015 03:21
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How did I manage to miss the Red Rising series? Spartacus Spartacus Spartacus!... I mean Reaper Reaper Reaper! (I joke, but my mental image of Darrow IS Liam McIntyre). Anyone who hasn't read it should give them a go, especially the audiobook versions. The narrator is absolutely fantastic and delivers the grand inspiring speeches extremely well.
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Jan 23, 2015 17:55
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Hedrigall posted:I dunno, I just hope to gently caress that she looks like this: I hope all the martian marines are obese women.
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Jan 24, 2015 16:07
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I'm just finishing up Neil Asher's new book Dark Intelligence: Transformation, and despite having read all his other work (ages ago, that's my issue) I'm finding myself a bit confused by some of the background. Could anyone give me a quick rundown on Penny Royal's history prior to the book?
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Feb 7, 2015 22:29
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am0kgonzo posted:I hope all the martian marines are obese women.
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Feb 8, 2015 02:07
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pork never goes bad posted:I'm just finishing up Neil Asher's new book Dark Intelligence: Transformation, and despite having read all his other work (ages ago, that's my issue) I'm finding myself a bit confused by some of the background. Could anyone give me a quick rundown on Penny Royal's history prior to the book? It is apparently set 100 years after the events of Orbus. Asher did an AMA a couple of days ago.
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Feb 8, 2015 14:23
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Collateral posted:It is apparently set 100 years after the events of Orbus. Asher did an AMA a couple of days ago. He has apparently already written the rest of the trilogy and is done with it at about the same time as the first book is published. Talk about work ethic.
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Feb 10, 2015 07:38
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So I read all that's been published of The Last Angel that was recommended a few months back. It had an interesting start but the world building really falls apart for me. Like Humans are getting their asses kicked and exterminated across the galaxy but manage to come up with no less than 5 huge breakthroughs at the same time. I was hoping that it was going to be revealed that The original species went full AI and was supplying humans tech but nothing like that hinted at yet. Also maybe it's just the comparison it was setting up with David Weber's universe but I felt like going Excalibur Alternative would have just made more sense. You know the expansion route of the species, go to a spot they won't be hit for 500-1000 years, and genetically engineer up another trillion humans with enough Dreadnoughts to match.
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Feb 10, 2015 15:24
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I picked up a new space opera book at the store this morning, Impulse by Dave Bara, and after trying to sit down to start reading it I had to put the book down after page ten due to the horrendously clunky writing and rapid-fire volley of space opera cliches. Space feudalism, check. Protagonist is the only surviving son of the fleet admiral and duke, check. Planetary monarchy is the result of a rebellion against an evil corporate empire, check. Earth is a mysterious lost world with hyper-advanced technology, check. Protagonist's first and only girlfriend was killed in the mysterious incident that started the plot, check. Protagonist is an ensign awaiting his first space duty but is now put in command of the royal flagship, check. If this is what to expect from the book, this is going to be a slog.
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Feb 26, 2015 06:14
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I hear ya. I've been trying out Kindle Unlimited and the Space Opera there is dire. I can't get into it at all.
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Feb 26, 2015 06:53
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British space opera, best space opera 
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Feb 26, 2015 07:20
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