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pakman posted:The next book on my list is The Windup Girl, and I am enjoying it a lot so far. I love the settting and the whole "generipping" thing. I read it a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it, and I've been planning on doing a reread after taking cyberpunk course at uni this semester and I brought it up briefly when we were discussing the direction cyberpunk fiction would/could go after the 90s.
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Nov 9, 2014 00:48
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Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett It was good but not great. You can unfortunately really tell that he's losing his touch. Roughly the first three quarters are (interesting and fun) exposition and the last bit really feel tacked on as if he suddenly remembered there had to be some sort of story to bind it all together. Nonetheless, it was very enjoyable, but I felt that it would be more appropriate if he were to scrap the whole Dwarven rebellion thing and put it in a Discworld encyclopedia or a 'history and future of the Discworld' collection than as a stand alone novel.
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Nov 16, 2014 00:21
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:I don't actually remember ever reading a dystopian novel that hasn't just made me think "this is dumb," so I'd also like to see suggestions if anyone has any... I just reread The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, and while it's far from perfect it's a pretty good and original take on the dystopian novel. The blurb on the front says 'Bacigalupi is a worthy successor to William Gibson' which kind of tells you what to expect. I found it really interesting as a departure from classic cyberpunk using current technologies (biochem, genetics, etc) in the same way 80s/90s writers used the technology of those days to create dystopias and extrapolate what could go wrong. It was also a breath of fresh air in that it's not at all euro-centric, despite one of the protagonists being a westerner. All the protagonists (except one, maybe two, I guess) are complete loving assholes, which is also nice. All in all, while definitely not without its flaws, I really like his take on a dystopian future because the horror comes not from either government or corporate power but rather from human hubris and failure and the failure of the government and corporations when things spiral out of control.
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Dec 1, 2014 12:48
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AFewBricksShy posted:I'm just about to start that. I accidentally got the Spanish version from the library, but will hopefully have the english version by this weekend. Here you go. I quite like all of them, although you can tell his writing definitely changed throughout the years. e: If you really any a specific recommendation, the Watch series generally highly appreciated, as are the Witch and Death series. If you liked Death in Good Omens then that might be a good start.
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Mar 3, 2015 20:16
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Ms. Happiness posted:I just finished The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. It was my first Pratchett book I've ever read and I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I thought it was trying to hard to be witty at the expense of having a storyline. Does the Discworld series get better? It absolutely does. You're completely right in your assessment, I felt the same way rereading that novel. It's only after the first couple of novels that he really hits his stride and starts dealing with central themes that he satirises, which is what (in my opinion) is the structure his earlier novels need. Not to say the first novels aren't entertaining, but they do fall a bit flat if you're expecting the quality of his later novels. The stories about Rincewind aren't my favourites anyway. Google for one of those reading guides and start reading the novels on Death or the Night Watch, which I think are probably the best of the bunch. Still, though, once you get into it you've got one hell of a ride in front of you. So many funny, good books to read, it'll take you a while to get through them all. Oh, to read Pratchett for the first time again. e: Like the poster above me said, try Small Gods. That's the one that got me hooked. Taeke fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Aug 23, 2015 |
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Aug 23, 2015 10:09
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The Tiffany Aching, while young adult, are very fun, quick reads too, don't skip them. The Wee Free Men are hilarious.
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Aug 23, 2015 11:54
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Including your amazon affiliate referral link in each url? Nice. When I read it a couple of years ago I was surprised how little it did, actually. Then again, I had just gotten off an Asimov binge which really does feel dated (in a good way) so I don't know. Speaking of which, I'm just about to finish Huxleys Brave New World and I was surprised to find out it was written in 1931. It really, really does not feel dated at all. Maybe it's the lack of technical explanations and the relatively prescient grasp of genetics and stuff, but it somehow works really well. If someone were to ask me which was older, 1984 or BNW, without me knowing anything about the novels aside from having read it, I would've totally thought that 1984 preceded BNW by at least a couple of decades.
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Oct 9, 2015 22:20
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Gertrude Perkins posted:The Turn Of The Screw, by Henry James. What a staggeringly dull book. Picked it up due to vague recognition of the title, and the review snippets on the back declaring its 'finesse', and that it's 'timelessly unsettling'. It is neither timeless nor unsettling: the prose is so florid and meandering that every page is practically watermarked 'Copyright 1898', not to mention the snippets of suffrage-era gender politics (at one point referring to 'the inferior sex', even). The density of its writing totally robs what could be genuinely exciting or creepy scenes of any impact. Also, Henry James loves using the word 'literally' for emphasis, so much that you could make a drinking game out of it. It's a short book, a classic ghost story archetype complete with too-innocent children and a large stately home to get spooked in. And maybe there's something I'm missing, because it does have a reputation. But it was a slog to read, 120 pages felt like 400, and the climax just confused me. I had to read it for some lit classes but never actually finished it. I guess it's one of those works that was important at the time and is only vaguely interesting to someone actually engaged in literary theory and history.
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Oct 19, 2015 14:17
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Which reminds me. I finally finished Brave New World a month back and I've been meaning to post about it. I read 1984 a couple of years ago and it was on my list for a long a long time (next up are Fahrenheit 451 and Slaughterhouse-Five, there's a theme) but I don't have much time to actually read something of my own choosing for pleasure. Anyway, I absolutely loved it. I'm sure most of you have read it and it's been analysed and discussed to hell and back, so I'll keep it short. Some spoilers ahead: While it started out great, I felt that about half way through the pacing was lost somewhat. I think this is because up until the section in the reservation the novelty and weirdness of all the technologies, ideas and especially social dynamics are very interesting, which is then contrasted to the familiarity of a 'primitive' society. When they return and the story really starts to develop something weird happens. On the one hand you get an outsider's perspective of the BNW technologies and society, which is interesting, but it's dragged down because it no longer has that novelty aspect. I felt myself getting a bit bored because everything I found enjoyable at the start was kind of rehashed with only John's reaction to it being vaguely interesting. Lenina (and the relationship between her and John) didn't interest me at all and felt forced at times. It's not until John's mother's death that things start to pick up again and while everything leading up to the final events was very enjoyable, the ending itself was a tad predictable, although not bad. Adequate and satisfactory, I guess. All in all, aside from a period of weariness, I loved it. I couldn't help but compare it to 1984 for obvious reasons, and I was pleasantly surprised that it holds up great even today. Considering it was written in 1931 I was expecting it to feel a lot more dated, but apart from a few moments (the description of the reporter's camera-battery-transmitter-hat comes to mind) it felt almost prescient at times. I think a big reason for that is the focus on genetics which has become a popular subject in the last decades. If it weren't for the language, you could've told me it was a retro-scifi written a year ago and it wouldn't feel out of place. Hell, put in some references to explain 'lost' technologies since the 1930s and a lot of it is very similar to, for example, Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, despite a near 80 year gap. 8.5/10, would recommend.
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Nov 29, 2015 17:28
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bowmore posted:The first book is easily the weakest, they get better later in the series. Book 3 is my favorite but book 5 through 7 are consistently fantastic. The one thing I truly love about the series is how it grew up along with its demographic. I was 10 or 11 when the first one came out, and it was cool how the characters and the books matured right along with me.
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Feb 11, 2016 12:07
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Mr. Nemo posted:Consider Phlebas Generally people recommend Player of Games as a follow up. It's not set in the Culture itself but gives a much better idea what they're actually about and what they do. There's a couple set within the Culture proper but most of them takes place elsewhere, because the interesting things are the Culture's interaction with others. It being a utopia and all makes life within the Culture kind of difficult to write interesting stories about.
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Feb 22, 2018 18:45
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We're in the middle of a heatwave and yesterday I didn't have the energy to do much except read, so I read Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven pretty much in one sitting. I'm currently also reading Earthsea: The First Four Books and I'm about 3/4 way through The Dispossessed. The former doesn't really grip me as much as I thought it would, but it's still a great read. Something I can pick up, read for an hour or so, and put down again. The Dispossessed I loved but the story slowed down a bit, I got distracted by life, and I never got around to finishing it. Definitely picking it up again, though. So anyway, The Lathe of Heaven. First off, it's written very differently than the books mentioned above. Those are written in a very unique voice, very poetically, whereas LoH is much more straightforward. I loved the story, characters and especially the pacing. I was hooked from beginning to end. Even though it was published nearly half a century ago, it didn't feel dated in the slightest. I won't go into details, both because I'm writing this on my phone and because I don't want to spoil anything. The story and setting goes all over the place, and constantly reminded me of other works and writers, both earlier (1984 and BNW come to mind) and later. The ending, for example, felt very similar to Stephen King's 11/22/63 but also the anime film Paprika. Also strong Twilight Zone vibes. All in all an excellent read for a lazy, sunny, way too warm Sunday afternoon. Would definitely recommend. It's only 184 pages, which is perfect for the story it's telling. Not too long or too short, just a perfectly satisfying read.
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Aug 10, 2020 13:51
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Crosspost from the Stephen King thread but posting it here too because I'm happy I'm finally reading again after almost a year of not having the time and energy: I read The Institute over the Easter weekend (well, finished the last 40ish pages Thursday) and it was a light, enjoyable read. Not groundbreaking by any means, but enjoyable nonetheless. A perfect story for a lazy weekend, so to say. I wasn't ever bored and at times truly hooked by the story, but that was mostly in the beginning and middle. The ending was adequate, I think, but too predictable which is why it took me a couple of days after the weekend to get back into it and finish the book. I don't really know what to think of it. It was a solid 7.5 out of 10 read for me, and I liked that it felt modern without being stilted (sometimes I really get a sense of "Darn kids with their newfangled technologies" vibe from King even when I read stuff from a decade or two ago) and I liked the story and characters but it all felt very... I don't know, unoriginal? It was like King picked up on a ton of themes and ideas that were popular 10-15 years ago and decided he needed to write something along those lines. It was basically Cabin in the Woods + Stranger Things + New Mutants + Minority Report (at the end), and reusing themes from 11/22/63 and Revival, although it did feel more hopeful that those. I dunno. A fun read, like I said. I like the story and I liked the characters, even though I feel he uses characters like Tim a lot and nothing about him felt (again the word) original. Luke was fine. I did like the way he used his intelligence in a pretty natural and pleasant way, both to drive the story forward and as an exposition device. What I didn't like was that King seemed to be very aware that Luke was dangerously close to being like the perfect protagonist, and would insert these observations to highlight that Luke is just a kid. His thoughts on being classist/prejudiced towards normal people felt really random. Sometimes he'd be perfectly capable of grasping his interactions with others and at other times he'd doubt himself suddenly or realize he was being judgmental even though there wasn't really any reason for it. As if King felt the need to insert flaws into Luke to make him more believable/relatable/realistic even thought the situation at that point didn't motivate it in any way. It just felt random. "Oh poo poo, haven't reminded the reader that Luke isn't perfect in a while so now I just gotta make him doubt himself and be awkward for a second.", you know? I did really like that the ending was much more mundane than I expected halfway through. I was afraid that it was going to be a Revival like ending where there's a big unknowable evil that's connected to the dots and the kids are used to keep it at bay, and now that the system broke down the world is going to end a lá Cabin in the Woods, but thankfully it was just the evil of normal humanity at large, and the ambiguity at the end of whether or not the institute was right was nice. Still, that's getting into the web of precognition and couldn't they have prevented nuclear armageddon by making people miss phone calls and poo poo instead of killing them. Like they were trying to stop the first piece of a huge Rube Goldberg machine when they could've, much more efficiently, stopped it at one of the end pieces. I feel like if the Institute really had all that power and really did have the best intentions they've been doing a really lovely job, both for the world and themselves and whatever their agenda is, which they should've known. At this point, with all they've accomplished so far, preventing the downfall of humanity would go hand in hand with improving life for all people to a point they hadn't despite having over half a decade to do so. But that gets into ideologically complex territory and I don't blame King for not going there. 7.5/10
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Apr 22, 2022 15:33
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TheWorldsaStage posted:Like I'm so psyched I have so many books to read. I'm hooked I'm incredibly jealous of you right now.
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Mar 6, 2023 19:30
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Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary First book of his I read, and I loved it. Devoured it in two days. For someone who's accustomed to denser scifi like Banks/Reynolds/etc, this was a very light read. Perfect for the first really nice days of spring. The story is straightforward enough, but fun and with enough twists to keep it interesting beyond *problem arises, has to be fixed*. I liked that the flashbacks were functional in a way where the reader knows as much as the character does. While at times a bit dense with the science, it served a purpose and Weir did a great job at communicating it in a the way a high school teacher would (heh), which combined with his direct, conversational style made it very accessible. My mom wants to practice her English and is interested in expanding her horizons and I recommended this as the perfect first step into scifi for her. Also, major spoiler: Rocky was great. The whole first contact bit was really well done, and he's alien enough to not feel like just a reskinned human, but also has enough of a personality to become a good character. A great book that was exactly what I thought it would be. Not mind blowing or exceptional, but tons of fun and definitly worth my time. 8/10
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May 2, 2023 10:47
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Yeah, King is deservedly considered one of the best writers out there despite having a lot of misses/mediocre stuff as well, but I feel that's kind of unavoidable given his output. Can't always bring your A game when you write that much. Still, even his worst stuff I'd consider to be pretty drat good and his best works are absolutely top tier. Do you have kids and want to get hosed up? Read Pet Semetary. That book haunted me for days/weeks after. Join us in the King thread if you want more recommendations and stuff.
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Jul 2, 2023 16:38
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tuyop posted:Yeah the culture books are not all equally good. I think my favourite was probably player of games, but excision was also good! I wrote my BA thesis on Use of Weapons lol Boco_T posted:I spent like two months reading Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks expecting it to turn into... something, instead of the nothing that it petered out into. I get what the theme was, but when you have that as your theme you are then forced to be held to the strength of the basic story and there were just so many sequences that I found uninteresting populated with characters I didn't care about. Oh well. I'll still probably end up reading more Culture books in the future because I was interested in that part. The Culture novels are all very different from one another and most recommend that even if Consider Phlebas doesn't click you should at least give Player of Games a shot because it's more like the rest of the novels. Consider Phlebas is kinda the odd one out because it's much more adventurous and the protagonist is from outside of the Culture, so if you're actually interested in the Culture you're in luck.
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Aug 9, 2023 16:10
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The older audiobooks read by Stephen Briggs are excellent too, and can generally be found on YouTube. It's my go to for falling to sleep to because the stories are entertaining and funny enough to keep my mind occupied but because I already know the stories it's not too stimulating to keep me awake and it doesn't matter if I fall asleep halfway through. It's also so full of jokes and great writing that every time I listen to one I hear/notice new things. Dunno how good the new audiobooks are. I gave them a try but bounced off hard because of how they handled the footnotes. In the Stephen Briggs version it's just read as is but with a slight echo, making it clear it's a footnote, whereas the new audiobooks ring a bell to start and end a footnote. The bell effect is just a bit too long and it takes me out of the main text completely. Stephen Briggs is also just a delight to listen to. He really nails the Pratchett vibe and his voices are great. You can really tell he loved Pratchett and his works, where the new audiobooks feel more produced and way less authentic.
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Nov 28, 2023 18:29
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Pratchett is cool because he'll write about a situation that seems totally monkeycheese lolrandom at first glance but it'll make total sense, have depth and meaning and pathos and make you laugh and cry. The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are a bit less coherent than his later works and might put you off but the rest is so much better than you'd think.
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Dec 12, 2023 15:35
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FreelanceSocialist posted:Just finished The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic by Sir Terry Pratchett. I am now a dozen pages into Equal Rites. This is going to consume the next few months of my life, won't it? I'm so jealous. Also months? You're good for at least a year, probably more depending on how much/fast you read. It's drat near two decades I've been reading Pratchett and I still read or listen to the audiobooks on a frequent basis, and every time I still discover new jokes or insights. It's my go-to thing to listen to and fall asleep with and I've really come to appreciate just how incredibly dense with jokes and meaning they are. Some of them I must've consumed a dozen times now and I still discover new things. Throwaway lines that seem insignificant but are a reference to or joke about stuff from other novels and poo poo, insights I didn't get before, things hit different because I'm older or in a different place in my life. Also even though the first couple of novels are pretty great, it gets so, so much better. If you loved these you're going to absolutely adore the rest. If there's one author whose works I could just completely wipe from memory and experience for the first time again it would be Pratchett. Or Banks. Tough call.
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Apr 16, 2024 22:58
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FreelanceSocialist posted:Wrapped up Equal Rites and Mort. Please keep me/us updated as you go through the series. I'm enjoying reading about a first time reader's experience.
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Apr 26, 2024 19:54
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