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I just finished my last Banks book (Hydrogen Sonata. I actually started with Algebraist and then read the Culture series in publication order). I am now starving for more good scifi. My favorite of the Culture books is Look to Windward by far (mostly because I didn't even realize what he was saying me until nearly the last page when I realized that oh, morally it is find and in fact perhaps sometimes for the best when an individual seeks to end their own life, and in fact those that force them to hold on past when they're ready to go may be doing them real harm. It was probably the only mature discussion of the right to end your own life that I'd ever read. I cried. My second most favorite is probably Excession just because I love reading the ships interacting. That aspect of Hydrogen Sonata really scratched that itch too. Looking around on google for recs mostly leads to sad puppy reading lists on reddit (gross), but I did see recs for Ursula K Le Guin and A Fire in the Deep. I ordered the latter and will be browsing my used book store for the former since everything on amazon was used anyway. What else should I put onto my reading list? I'd be especially interested in any woman or poc authors that might be out there, though obviously I'll read anything that isn't loaded up with weird fascist overtones.
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Dec 20, 2016 03:37
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 18:32 |
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:I like how the Culture has technically hit the singularity but decided that kicking around in modified but ultimately pretty inefficient humanoid bodies is Cool and Good. It's a pretty neat question into the whole "human nature/meaning of life" thing. Like sure, Culture people could just consign themselves into an existence free of the limitations of flesh bodies via subliming, group minds, or any number of other things, but then again what's the point of that? Humans are motivated by doing what feels good, and Culture people, by and large, can do what feels good to them without having a negative impact on themselves, the people around them, or even the universe at large. If you can do whatever pops into your head (except harm another person) without any consequences at all, what would your motivation for seeking some higher form even be. You have no way to know that that higher form will actually be better and you know you're having a great time just how you are. Pretty much I think the premise of the Culture is, to some extent, a rejection of that sort of Star Trek-ian notion that life forms will inevitably evolve to some point where they become something else entirely unbounded by the limitations of human bodies (energy beings, godlike entities, etc). There's no motivation to do that, at least on a societal scale, if you have the resources and technology to do whatever you want and don't have any religious beliefs compelling you to do it (Hydrogen Sonata touches on this quite a bit).
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Dec 20, 2016 23:23
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Print is dead. the artform formerly known as print
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Dec 25, 2016 05:24
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I think it would be a very fast picket actually.
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Dec 25, 2016 05:55
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General Battuta posted:Gibson owns because everything he wrote came true (in the abstract if not the specifics) and because he has good prose which can stand up with ~real~ writers. Like Banks he ended up writing books which weren't science fiction, but while Banks did it because he could Gibson did it because then world caught up to him. We can only hope this comes true for Banks some time in the future too.
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Jan 25, 2017 19:05
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:People who don't like Consider Phlebas: I like Consider Phlebas because it enables Look to Windward to exist.
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Feb 7, 2017 19:46
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I was a pretty big fan of Sleeper Service. I just like the weirdos who gently caress off to do their own thing. Mistake Not... was a pretty cool guy too.
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Feb 21, 2017 16:50
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Strawman posted:And of course Grey Area, which meatfucked off to do its own thing. Yes, him too. Basically eccentrics are the best and in my headcanon the excession was just another eccentric who hosed off to somewhere that it learned to do some crazy cool poo poo in and came back just to gently caress with special circumstances.
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Feb 21, 2017 19:57
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I thought it was fitting because the ship's personality is pretty clearly portrayed as it having an extremely high opinion of itself but also being a bit immature. It fits that it would give itself kind of an overwrought "badass" name.
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Feb 21, 2017 22:24
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Powaqoatse posted:Just read them in publication order, I don't see a reason for putting together a weird book playlist This is what I did and it was fine. That said, Look to Windward is Banks' greatest work in my opinion. Also, thanks for the Vernor Vinge rec a while back. I'm now about 1/3 of the way through Children of the Sky and drat do I love me some dogbros and some spiderbros. It's kind of satisfying that for the most part I hate the human characters because even the ones that are "good guys" are too often doing stupid poo poo that makes things worse due to their emotional blind spots and such. Pham Nuwen is an exception obvs.
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May 23, 2017 15:43
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 18:32 |
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Look to windward seriously comes together in practically the last pages to dawn on you as an extremely poignant exploration of a fundamental human issue. The right to die on your own terms and with dignity. I hadn't even thought much on the topic and when I hit the end I suddenly realized I had feelings about it.
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May 26, 2017 03:56
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