|
torgo posted:Can anyone recommend some sci-fi books about contact with incomprehensibly alien aliens? Blindsight is a good example of what I'm looking for. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is another book that touches on this theme, but I have the feeling if I read the rest of the trilogy, the aliens' motivations will be revealed to be pretty "human" in the end. http://www.amazon.com/The-Course-Empire-Eric-Flint/dp/0743498933/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1372443002&sr=8-2&keywords=empire+flint and it is free on Amazon Kindle.
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 19:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:30 |
|
|
quote:The Gap Series, Embassytown, The Course of Empire, "The Story of your Life" Thanks for these recommendations. I'm hoping at least some of them will turn out to have some real alien conflict, instead of the "whoops, we just didn't quite understand each other at first, but it turns out we are all the same" endings I've come to expect from alien contact stories. Megazver posted:Harry Connolly of the Twenty Palaces fame couldn't sell his newest fantasy novel to the publishers because it's, quote, not grimdark enough, so he's probably going to Kickstart it sometime soon. This is awesome news. I'd definitely kickstart it. I hope it's successful enough that he decides to continue the Twenty Palaces series the same way.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 20:14
|
|
|
systran posted:I'm like halfway through book 2 of Hyperion and am not much feeling it any more. Should I keep going? keep reading. The ending is the whole point of the saga. Those of you who have finished Fall of Hyperion, how could you advocate not finishing the novel knowing that The destruction of the farcaster network and the death of the Hegemony is the point of the whole saga? gohmak fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Jun 28, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 21:21
|
|
|
torgo posted:This is awesome news. I'd definitely kickstart it. I hope it's successful enough that he decides to continue the Twenty Palaces series the same way. He already said it's not going to happen until/unless he hits big with some other book and gets a bigger audience. The numbers just don't work for him. Each book in that series sold way less copies than the previous one and he needs to try and write something that can actually sustain his career instead of trying to squeeze water from a shrinking stone. It's a tremendous shame, I know. Megazver fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jun 28, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 21:21
|
|
|
gohmak posted:keep reading. The ending is the whole point of the saga. I had already decided to stop reading it. It's really tempting to read your spoiler. I will wait to see if people come up with a good argument against you.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 21:40
|
|
|
gohmak posted:keep reading. The ending is the whole point of the saga. Of course the ending is the point of the story. But the value of an ending depends on what the reader thinks of the rest of the story. If one doesn't enjoy the writing, care about the characters, or want to know what happens, why continue? I don't mean to put words into systran's mouth but he didn't seem to be enjoying it. torgo posted:Can anyone recommend some sci-fi books about contact with incomprehensibly alien aliens? Blindsight is a good example of what I'm looking for. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is another book that touches on this theme, but I have the feeling if I read the rest of the trilogy, the aliens' motivations will be revealed to be pretty "human" in the end. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, (I haven't read this one). Roadside Picnic by the Strugatskys - obliquely, as it's about the debris left after aliens visit Earth. "The Colour out of Space" by Lovecraft, if you can stand him, has probably the strangest you'll find, but some of his others have pretty odd aliens. Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, I'm really tempted by the $75 level actually, because I'd really like a signed hardback of Ithnalin's Restoration. A magical accident spreads a wizard's personality out over all the living room furniture, which all then runs away, and his apprentice has to recollect them all to restore her boss. That sounds fun. The US reward tiers are pretty good, and it looks like it's a success for him (target reached in 3 days, though it was very modest.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 23:16
|
|
|
torgo posted:Can anyone recommend some sci-fi books about contact with incomprehensibly alien aliens? Blindsight is a good example of what I'm looking for. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is another book that touches on this theme, but I have the feeling if I read the rest of the trilogy, the aliens' motivations will be revealed to be pretty "human" in the end. Fiasco by Lem is also exactly this. I think it's better than Solaris, too. It's certainly more fun.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 01:20
|
|
|
Hey guys I've been on a two year long sci-fi binge and I'm running out of ideas for what to read next, was hoping you had some suggestions for me. I would really like something with cyberpunk elements but also with strong prose and that has been written recently enough to extrapolate contemporary technology in to the future. I'm cool with anything from contemporary to the distant future as far as setting goes. Needs to be available in audiobook. I think what I am looking for is something covering similar subject matter to Altered Carbon if that makes sense. I really like stuff with biotech implants, computer viruses, hacking, designer drugs, virtual reality, etc. As far as the writing style, I really liked Dune, Hyperion and Neuromancer. I am also really in to Neil Stephenson for his immense research and detail and whatever I read next I would like for it to be long as I primarily listen to Audiobooks at work and I want something that will last a few days at least. I like Vernor Vinge but I found Rainbows End to be a little too... silly? Liked the tech but looking for something darker. Gibson is great but I thought Pattern Recognition was a little dull and low on technology futurism stuff. I intend to read Broken Angels (Kovachs 2) but I'd like to try a different author first since I just finished Altered Carbon.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 01:46
|
|
|
Can anyone recommend any books like "Declare" by Tim Powers? Declare blew me away when I read it, and hit this sweet spot for me that I guess I'd never really thought about in the way that it combined the occult and the Cold War. I've read a few other Tim Powers books (Anubis Gates, The Stress of Her Regard), which I enjoyed, but the particular setting of Declare worked better for me. I guess the Milkweed Triptych scratch a similar itch (and for WWII occult stuff there's always Hellboy), but where to go from there? I read the first two books in Stross's Laundry Files series, and mostly enjoyed them but found them a little too silly. I loved Kim Newman's Anno Dracula and its sequels -- which I guess has some similarities, but it's not quite the same thing. I find myself at a loss to figure out what else would be close to Declare. Is there anything else like Declare?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 01:57
|
|
|
KingAsmo posted:Hey guys I've been on a two year long sci-fi binge and I'm running out of ideas for what to read next, was hoping you had some suggestions for me. Read something written by a woman. Try Cherryh for space opera. God's War by Kameron Hurley is a lot like Altered Carbon in its tone and delivery, though I think it's a pretty flawed book. I dunno there are probably a lot of recommendations I'm missing. There's Connie Willis but I don't think she'd be to your taste.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 02:25
|
|
|
KingAsmo posted:Hey guys I've been on a two year long sci-fi binge and I'm running out of ideas for what to read next, was hoping you had some suggestions for me. Give Charles Stross a try - you might like him. Additionally, even though it doesn't meet all your criteria, I'd recommend Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution series, The Night Sessions, and The Restoration Game. Here's a decent summary of his style: quote:His novels often explore socialist, communist and anarchist political ideas, most particularly the variants of Trotskyism and anarcho-capitalism or extreme economic libertarianism. Technical themes encompass singularities, divergent human cultural evolution and post-human cyborg-resurrection. You've kind of already covered the big hitters, so I think you'll have to branch out a bit. Edit: Oh, and check out "Otherland" by Tad Williams and see if that interests you. Honestly I never ended up finishing the series but I liked the first two books well enough.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 02:26
|
|
|
Probably because it wasn't as good as the last two, but Abaddon's Gate ebook at Amazon is only $5 for who knows how long, http://www.amazon.com/Abaddons-Gate-The-Expanse-ebook/dp/B00A2DZMYE Even though as reported by other goons here the series was extended so the ending is lacking, it was enough closure after the last one. Also it looks like the first one, Leviathan Wakes, is still discounted to $3 http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-The-Expanse-ebook/dp/B0047Y171G
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 03:24
|
|
|
torgo posted:Thanks for these recommendations. I'm hoping at least some of them will turn out to have some real alien conflict, instead of the "whoops, we just didn't quite understand each other at first, but it turns out we are all the same" endings I've come to expect from alien contact stories. About the Gap series; the aliens are pretty ancillary. They are an important part of the story, but they aren't even mentioned until the 3rd book IIRC.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 03:25
|
|
|
I have every intention of starting The Wheel of Time and not finishing (a few reviews suggested stopping around book 5). I don't know how wholly acceptable this practice is, but I really want to read the first one and maybe a few others but have no desire to do 12 or whatever, especially if they suck.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 04:02
|
|
|
McCoy Pauley posted:Can anyone recommend any books like "Declare" by Tim Powers? Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins might be something you'll like. It's a fantasy thriller set in an alternate earth totalitarian communist Russia. http://www.wolfhoundcentury.com/
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 04:42
|
|
|
Alec Eiffel posted:I have every intention of starting The Wheel of Time and not finishing (a few reviews suggested stopping around book 5). I personally suggest trying book 1. If you hate it, skip the series as a whole, it doesn't substantially improve from book 1. If you like it, I'd suggest reading the whole series, but skimming through a lot of books around 9-10 or so - Jordan really had major pacing issues in this part of his series. That said, the ending is totally worth it, and the books as a whole improve substantially in both 11 (where Jordan remembers about things like 'pacing' and 'having stuff happen in the plot' and 'actually advancing the timeline') and when Sanderson takes over after Jordan's demise. The whole plot will have a ton of unresolved stuff if you abandon it partway through. There are typically narrative climaxes at the end of each book, but they tend to only resolve immediate conflicts, not the overarching plot of the whole series. The last few books are actually probably the best part of the series (though, as I wrote above, if you didn't like the first novel, the improvement is probably not substantial enough to warrant reading the series).
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 05:26
|
|
|
torgo posted:Can anyone recommend some sci-fi books about contact with incomprehensibly alien aliens? Blindsight is a good example of what I'm looking for. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is another book that touches on this theme, but I have the feeling if I read the rest of the trilogy, the aliens' motivations will be revealed to be pretty "human" in the end. I'm really fond of Greg Egans books. I'd say the aliens in, for example, Incandescense and Shild's Ladder are pretty incomprehensible, at least in the beginning. Most stuff by Greg Egan is very "hard" sci-fi, though. So there's also a lot of alternative-physics-explaining and transhumanism going on all the time, which can be interesting/uninteresting depending on your personal taste, I guess. Diaspora is even more about transhumanism, but there are some rather alien aliens in that book, too... NoButterUtter fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Jun 29, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 11:33
|
|
|
torgo posted:Thanks for these recommendations. I'm hoping at least some of them will turn out to have some real alien conflict, instead of the "whoops, we just didn't quite understand each other at first, but it turns out we are all the same" endings I've come to expect from alien contact stories. Embassytown definitely isn't a 'we're all the same' book. It goes pretty deep into notions of different ways of thinking, different physiologies, and even how spoken language's mental underpinnings could differ. I found it fascinating and enthralling, particularly as there is most definitely a conflict at the centre of it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 14:19
|
|
|
Alec Eiffel posted:I have every intention of starting The Wheel of Time and not finishing (a few reviews suggested stopping around book 5). The problem with this plan is that only the books *in the middle*, from around book 7 to around book 10, are bad. The last few books in the series are as good or better than the first few books in the series. edit: I think the WoT is for people who read really fast. If you can knock out a thousand page book in short order it's worth the time commitment. If each book takes you a month though that's a year of your life for the whole thing. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jun 29, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 15:44
|
|
|
As someone who has read all but the last Wheel of Time book, I recommend not reading any of it. I enjoyed parts of it, but it just drags so badly and so many pointless plot arcs are introduced along the way. If you stop early you'll feel like you wasted your time, if you finish you'll spend too much time. Just don't read it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 16:16
|
|
|
Read the first book or the first 3, both points can serve as stopping points. If you read the first 3 and like them, then I suggest that you keep going. As people said, 9 and 10 are a bit slow but it picks back up after that. Also one of those two books have one of my favorite chapters of the entire series so they are not all that bad, they just suffer from the poor pacing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 19:40
|
|
|
WoTchat: If you really want to read them, I'd suggest 1-6, read 7-11s summaries (http://www.thonky.com/wot/) and then read 12-14. If you aren't sure, I agree with this: systran posted:As someone who has read all but the last Wheel of Time book, I recommend not reading any of it. I enjoyed parts of it, but it just drags so badly and so many pointless plot arcs are introduced along the way. If you stop early you'll feel like you wasted your time, if you finish you'll spend too much time. Just don't read it. IMO 1-3 are the best, 7-11 are poo poo, the first two Sanderson ones are good, and the last book is horribly rushed because all the loose ends have to be tied up (a lot of them still aren't, I guess Jordan was going to write a kind of epilogue after the series was over). Haerc fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Jun 29, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 20:34
|
|
|
KingAsmo posted:Hey guys I've been on a two year long sci-fi binge and I'm running out of ideas for what to read next, was hoping you had some suggestions for me. I second the God's War suggestion (despite plot weakness the world is just beautifully executed) and also take a look at http://www.amazon.com/KOP/dp/B007BJUHPG/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_audd?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372536503&sr=1-1&keywords=kop and http://www.amazon.com/The-Skinner-Spatterjay-Series-Book/dp/B004JPBHNG/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1372536675&sr=1-1 which aren't quite what you asked for and yet..I'm an Altered Carbon fanatic and I liked these so maybe that emotion carried through to these. The samples should tell you....
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 21:14
|
|
|
Amortals by Matt Forbeck was pretty good. Basically, it's sort of like Altered Carbon without the  CATHOLICS! and sex.It's more of a murder mystery kinda thing, where the guy has to investigate who killed him in a previous body. I dug it 
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 21:45
|
|
|
So question for Tolkien fans... My general experience with people online who don't "get" Lord of the Rings is that someone says "just read The HObbit." And if you really liked LOTR, read The Silmarillion. I guess I'm weird because I absolutely struggled to get through Fellowship. All the crap in the Shire and the stuff on the way to the Prancing Pony (excluding Bombadil, who was great) bored the ever loving gently caress out of me. Things took a definite turn for the better with the Council of Elrond but the book still defeated me about four or five times before I could complete it. But The Silmarillion? It kept me captivated from start to finish. The genesis of Ea, the massive events that took place before and during the First Age, the Fall of Numenor in the Second, all of it kept me wanting for more. I finished it one read through and thoroughly enjoyed myself. As it so happens I thought Turin was the best character, namely because he got the most legitimate focus and character development of anyone else in the book. Everyone else received sort of broad strokes characterization while the part with Turin was very focused on him. So my question - should I go for The Hobbit or the Children of Hurin?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 22:45
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:So my question - should I go for The Hobbit or the Children of Hurin? The tougher question is what someone with your interests should read after that. There's a lot more fragments of Silmarillion-like material in the History of Middle Earth series, but there are diminishing returns the deeper one gets into the arcana of Tolkien. The one "this is like that" I can offer is Jacqueline Carey's Sundering series, which is unashamedly a revisionist take on the Silmarillion with Morgoth as the...well, not quite good guy, but let's say the most sympathetic figure. And I guess there's always real history. I feel like the history of the Roman Republic and Empire hits some of the same notes (a long defeat in which heroism, art, and wisdom occasionally flourish only to be lost to catastrophes sparked by pride, malice, incompetence, mistrust, and plain bad fortune).
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 00:32
|
|
|
KingAsmo posted:Hey guys I've been on a two year long sci-fi binge and I'm running out of ideas for what to read next, was hoping you had some suggestions for me. Try the Petrovitch trilogy. Adventure cyberpunk.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 04:44
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:So my question - should I go for The Hobbit or the Children of Hurin? The Children of Hurin, definitely. As for where to go after that, I'd suggest looking into romance, myths, and epics (Malory, Beowulf, Chaucer), and asking in the Tolkien thread about what's in Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth. I think there are a couple of other versions of Turin's story in there.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 10:15
|
|
|
Did you guys see the Locus award winners? Best YA novel was Railsea, well deserved, but best SF novel went to Redshirts. How the gently caress that unfunny, unoriginal, poorly written piece of poo poo won over books like 2312 and The Hydrogen Sonata is kind of breaking my brain right now. Is Locus voted by the public? Because that might explain it. I hope professional critics really aren't praising Redshirts as the SF book of the year. Please console me as to why that book could have won  edit: full list of nominees and winners: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/06/announcing-the-2013-locus-award-winners
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 11:00
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:Please console me as to why that book could have won Hedrigall posted:I hope professional critics really aren't praising Redshirts as the SF book of the year.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 12:24
|
|
|
Lex Talionis posted:The Locus is basically an online poll, with the caveat that votes by Locus subscribers count double. Guys like Scalzi who have a big online presence naturally can expect to do well. You'll notice Charles Stross won Best Fantasy, and while I haven't read The Apocalypse Codex I'd consider that at least as much of a stretch as Redshirts winning for SF. For similar reasons there's at least a decent chance Scalzi might win the Hugo as well, so start preparing yourself for disappointment now. Well, the Nebula's voted by SFWA members, and there are other juried awards too http://www.sfadb.com/Awards_Directory - the year Diana Wynne Jones was judging the WFA there was a kerfuffle when she was the only person to have read all the books (to be fair, there are ~400 of them) and then walked out. The cross-Atlantic thing also means that we get stupid situations like Declare being up for a BSFA (or BFA?) ten years after it was published. Rolling eligibility is one thing, but look at how peoples' reputation changes in a decade - Perdido Street Station was a surprise winner over Ash, iirc, but now one would probably look back and think "Of course". (Mary Gentle wuz robbed.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 12:47
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:Did you guys see the Locus award winners? Scalzi is chair of the science fiction fantasy writers association, and has been involved in a fair amount of outreach and damage control this year. It wouldn't be shocking were there some degree of bias there. That said, I haven't read KSR since the Mars series ages ago, and found him super dry. I know 2312 got praise, but how accessible is it?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 12:52
|
|
|
I would say 2312 is accessible*, but it's pretty dry and I've seen some people develop a strong dislike for the protagonist. It's not the sort of novel that grips you with a driving plot, it's more like a slice of life look into what the solar system and human beings are like 300 years from now. (I suppose it had more of a plot than "a future history of Mars", I guess?) I am not at all surprised it didn't fare well in an online vote. I haven't read any of the other books on the fantasy nominee list but The Apocalypse Codex is the weakest Laundry novel**, but again, not at all surprised it won an online vote. *Granted, I may not be the best person in the world to gauge this. When I think "inaccessible" I think Pynchon. And I'm the sort of person who grins at finding the word "escarpment" in a KSR novel. **The Jennifer Morgue is Fleming, The Fuller Memorandum is le Carré, and The Apocalypse Codex is Clancy. Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Jun 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 13:14
|
|
|
I will happily admit that 2312 has a grating main character* and about as much actual plot as a short story, and that plot is almost entirely in the background to the setting. But what a goddamn setting. My mind was reeling with every chapter from the ideas. When I read it I said it was my favourite science fiction novel ever, and I might not make the same claim now but it's definitely up there and I predict it'll be this decade's/century's Dune. *The annoying one being Swan. The other main character, Wahram, is a total delight, and nuanced, and fascinating. edit: Hell, for posterity, here's the slightly incoherent Goodreads review I wrote immediately after finishing the book last year. I stand by most of this still: I posted:Right off the bat: this is probably the best science fiction book I've ever read. I cannot possibly give this book enough praise, but let me ramble a bit: Also, here are two contrasting views from the top two reviews of the book on Goodreads: A 1-star review posted:The only people I can recommend this book to are extreme liberals. Unwashed hippies, reeking of patchouli. This book postulates a world where conservatism, libertarianism, anarchy and capitalism are evil and never work. Except for some reason they do because old rich people demand they do. And in come our heroes of the nanny state liberal totalitarians to save the day. No mater what people want. If that sounds like heaven, read this book. A 5-star review posted:This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It has an extremely interesting structure that verges on the allegorical. There's an alchemical marriage of Mercury and Saturn, The dynamic of old and emerging structures embedded in the present, three prose styles,- all very clever. A duet of Swan and Frog. If any of what I've said or quoted makes you interested in the book, by all means read it! It's a divisive book and it's very worthy of being discussed and debated over. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Jun 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 13:21
|
|
|
This is a tendency of mine when it comes to deeply divisive works of fiction but I didn't think it was terrible nor did I feel it was a masterpiece. I just enjoyed it for what it was (having read the Mars Trilogy), and can understand people being upset if it wasn't quite what they had hoped for. I didn't even find Swan that grating, and Wahram is a great character. My favourite parts were the interludes KSR put between chapters about future history and the development of science and would read a book by KSR that is nothing but those. I will reserve giving an opinion whether it's the Dune of the 21st century until it's the 22nd century.  I'm kinda doubtful it will have the same sort of genre impact Dune did, in that I doubt we'll be seeing anything like the subsequent flood of Feudalism In Space. (And it's kind of descriptive that that is what most took away from Dune, instead of the mysticism and the ecology.)
Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Jun 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 13:45
|
|
|
Swan was really a detriment to 2312. Kim came up with this fascinating world and decided to show it through the lens of a grumpy, impulsive, combative and selfish child suffering from an entirely unsympathetic case of boredom.
Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Jun 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 19:55
|
|
|
gohmak posted:keep reading. The ending is the whole point of the saga. I agree that the end of the second book is worth reading, and a satisfying place to stop, and the parts that didn't get resolved didn't bother me too much. I skipped the Endymion books, but might come back to them. What are they about? Do they get more into time tomb/moneta/shrike origin stuff? Or is it an unrelated story/aftermath in the future of the same universe?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 21:42
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:So I am looking for recommendations on basically any fantasy that is either a single book or so self-contained that I could read the first book in a series without needing to immediately go into the next part. I tend to try to mix up genres and move from fiction to non-fiction so I don't want to get caught up in a series, especially one that is extremely long. I recently read the Colour of Magic since it was on a Kindle Daily Deal and, just as I feared, it ended on a total cliff-hanger with no resolution (although I have heard that the second book does wrap up this particular story). I would prefer swords & sorcery - either high or low - since I don't get enough of that in my reading diet, but I am fairly open in my reading tastes and can find enjoyment in anything. I have followed the flow-chart above and it seems like Stardust by Neil Gaiman is one of the few that matched my criteria. I am pretty set on sci-fi, so don't need any recommendations there. Some fantasy I have read and enjoyed: So, I know I'm late in responding to this and the thread has moved on somewhat, but I really enjoyed The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It's clearly a modern homage to C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, but was enjoyable regardless. The novel very much stands on its own but there is a sequel should you get invested in the story. If anyone's looking for a good epic fantasy, I'm really enjoying Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles. The first book is The Name of the Wind. I found the style of writing really unique, and the presentation of key parts of the story as a recollection of a main character leaves the possibility of a fallible or dishonest narrator having an impact on later events. The world-building is also very colourful without being oppressive, and the diction used is almost musical in quality. I kept finding myself comparing the book to listening to a symphony, as opposed to some lower-brow 'epic' fantasy being more equivalent to a brainless but easily-digested top-40 track. Also to guy asking about Children of Hurin vs. The Hobbit, there's almost no question that you'll like Children better, but I personally found that it didn't have the same grand scale as The Silmarillion and, as a result of the way it was edited together from unfinished notes, was even more difficult to read through. I can't help but feel that much of what Christopher Tolkien elected to publish following JRR's death was essentially a cash in on the unexpected interest in The Silmarillion. To be clear, I also read and loved the Hobbit, and can't recommend against it to anyone unless you're put off by the more simplistic writing style.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 01:00
|
|
|
They get a little bit into the Shrike and it's origins. The explaination is pretty silly, though. On the whole though I consider the Endymion books very inferior to their predecessors; they are somewhat related, but on the whole the ending of Fall of Hyperion's resolution is pretty good, and if you weren't satisfied by lack of resolution after The Fall of Hyperion you will probably be even more dissatisfied by The Rise of Endymion's closing. They do rely on knowledge of the previous books a lot, and are highly related. That said, the Endymion books are still way better than 90% of genre fiction. They don't feel the same as Hyperion, at all, but they're still a pretty good read. Edit: Kalenn Istarion posted:If anyone's looking for a good epic fantasy, I'm really enjoying Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles. The first book is The Name of the Wind. I found the style of writing really unique, and the presentation of key parts of the story as a recollection of a main character leaves the possibility of a fallible or dishonest narrator having an impact on later events. The world-building is also very colourful without being oppressive, and the diction used is almost musical in quality. I kept finding myself comparing the book to listening to a symphony, as opposed to some lower-brow 'epic' fantasy being more equivalent to a brainless but easily-digested top-40 track. I found the first book really astoundingly well-done on the whole, and really enjoyed it a lot. That said, the sequel was much, much worse, almost to the point of going back and wrecking the first book. I am not optimistic about further books in the series, based on the direction the second book was going. I'd suggest reading the first book and stopping there. Great Gray Shrike fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Jul 1, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 01:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:30 |
|
|
The Endymion books commit the cardinal sin of actively making their predecessors less good.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 01:48
|
|