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Chokeslam posted:I cant beleive I've never read Vinge before this thread, being a big fan of the genre. Thanks heaps for bringing him up, I just finished Fire (great read) and am starting Deepness.
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Sep 16, 2009 01:03
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WarLocke posted:And to tiptoe back into dangerous waters, the Prince Roger series (Weber & Ringo) is another good one. It's almost entirely planet-based, though. And this was early Ringo before he started adding sex and rape to everything. the covers are awesome. blonde haired guy in sleek camo riding a dinosaur? check hot chick in revealing camo? check guy in futuristic silver amour? check stupidly large firearms? you knows it. the version i have goes so far as to cover half the book jacket in silver 'foil' & raise author's names so i can find it in the dark. not bad if you like excuses for pitched battles, evolving tactics always based around one (new) trick & obvious character progressions. the evil empire is a green oriented socialist empire btw.
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Nov 10, 2009 23:38
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WarLocke posted:I guess I just have lovely taste in books. I own about 2500 sci fi novels, i have no basis for intellectual snobbery.
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Nov 11, 2009 23:55
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Miss-Bomarc posted:I like them, although it gets a bit repetitive sometimes to read about the awesomest soldiers in the universe being awesomely more awesome than everyone else. It's non-political, in the sense that it's taken as given that any politician is a total sniveling weasely bastard and the Slammers are the only people who can do anything at all. Anything like gordon r dickson's dorsai (childe cycle)? I always loved those.
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Nov 12, 2009 13:50
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It might be worth noting that the whitehaven threesome thing is lifted from the life of nelson & lady hamilton, one of the main inspirations for hornblower. Historical precedent doesn't make webber's take on it any less irritating to me.
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Nov 18, 2009 00:01
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Not to forget that hornblower's partial inspiration admiral lord nelson was a famous leg over merchant who lived openly with his mistress despite his wife's disapproval - actually in a manner not at all unlike harrington's marriage in the later books
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Jun 10, 2010 14:19
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Velius posted:
Not to forget the tines personality groupings being based on systems of small computer networks.
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Jun 16, 2010 15:59
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Chairman Capone posted:I used to give Baen a lot of credit for their willingness to put both old and new titles online for free. But on the other hand, most of their free stuff is poo poo like this. Also the covers to their books are, without a single exception, absolutely terrible.  I have a different edition with raised silver & gold foiling on the names/title & on all the metallic objects. It's why i bought the book. It's the book equivalent of this... 
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Dec 21, 2010 10:33
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TjyvTompa posted:I just started reading A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and...I don't understand poo poo. I've read the first 60 pages and so far I don't understand anything, some kind of wolf people? Does it get more explained later? It just seems like I missed something. It helps if you know a little about network topography, but only in way knowing a bit about 17th century banking & the blood lines of europe during the reformation helps when reading stephenson. Which is to say i always feel smug reading these things & then let down when that's a smartest thing i do in a week.
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Sep 22, 2011 04:04
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Rockefeller posted:Sorry if I missed it, but does anyone know of some space operas set in our solar system? I can't get into made up space settings for some reason. Asimov's Lucky Starr was a fun silly read cause they were tootin around our planets. Kim stanley robinson's mars trilogy, bruce sterling's schismatrix plus, john barnes' century next door series. Ben bova wrote a series called 'the grand tour' based on the colonisation of the solar system. It's probably the most space opera of the ones i mentioned but i'm not a huge fan of the series. Space opera is usually not confined to a singular solar system.
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Oct 7, 2011 00:04
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Chairman Capone posted:I was really sad to hear that Harry Harrison died. I thought he had a really unique voice, not to mention take on the genre. As much as I liked the Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero, my favorite of his will always be Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers. What an incredibly brilliant and bizarre sendup of pulp scifi. The Eden series was pretty great high concept alterna history and I really enjoyee the Hammer and Cross series, one of the few done well norse mythology books. His older pulp stuff like the Transatlantic tunnel or Deathworld or To The Stars! were alway readable and free of the weird 70s sex stuff that showed up in the work of many of his contemporaries
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Aug 17, 2012 13:22
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Hedrigall posted:This is real nerdy, too nerdy for the music subforum, but does anyone know of some awesome music to listen to while reading futuristic sci-fi books and/or thinking up stuff for things I may want to write myself? I want music that sounds like I am in the future :B Immunity by Rupert Hine is a pretty awesome album of futuristic synth pop
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Aug 19, 2012 09:01
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Groke posted:Really? I found it was an incredible blend of pseudo-Norse D&D mythology (priests of particular gods all lined up with their different holy symbols and whatnot) with impossibly modern ways of thought among the good guys (20th century rationalist atheism WITH sexual liberation and equal rights for the women) on one hand, and "all monotheism is completely stupid and evil and Christianity especially so" on the other. And I AM a rationalist atheist who has played a lot of D&D and favours sexual liberation and equal rights and doesn't much care for monotheism so you'd think I'd be right there in the choir being preached to, but Harrison was just laying it on much too thick. I've read and liked a lot of Harrison, mind you, and even this series would have been quite enjoyable if I could have ignored the stuff I just complained about, but meh. Hey, I'm a tolerant, agnostic Australian ... I just enjoyed the story for what it was. FWIW I thought it wasn't it wasn't monotheism or Christianity under attack but the Catholic Church, I don't think many people would defend the dark ages church for spreading tolerance and free thought.
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Aug 21, 2012 14:28
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Hughlander posted:To be fair, the same could be said about David Weber only there are two archetypes, author insert and strawman adversary. Also SPACE CATS
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Sep 12, 2013 15:19
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coyo7e posted:Zero G cat poo poo sounds great, can't wait. It's been awhile but I remember psychic space cats and a Lord Nelson/Lady Hamilton/Hamilton style love triangle but no toilets. Future neo-regency space has passed beyond the toilet
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Sep 14, 2013 06:14
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tonberrytoby posted:I just read this. It was very good. Defiantly inspired by Banks. I really liked it but would rather that was it. Ambiguity is a better outcome than a dead-horse flogged for another three to eight books.
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Dec 16, 2013 10:38
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Darth Walrus posted:I enjoyed Germline. Here's my post on it: I really liked Germline. About the same time I read the Union series by Phillip Richards. Very gritty future infantry warfare written by a serving UK soldier.
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Mar 27, 2015 12:59
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ArchangeI posted:Reminder that Tom Kratman believes that the right answer to an alien invasion of people-eating monsters is to revive literal SS-war criminals because they are "motivated to fight" unlike those pinko liberals these days who would just roll over. thanks for the effort, just bought a copy
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Jan 18, 2017 11:19
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