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Hedrigall posted:Can I get a goonsensus on why I should avoid Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons? I remember there being a reason people don't like them but I can't remember what it was and I'm hearing great things about it on another forum. And I love the idea of posthumans recreating the Trojan war on Mars. It sounds loving awesome. I'm really enjoying The Terror by Simmons so far, and Hyperion will be the next book of his I tackle, but I'm wondering why people say stop there.
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Jul 7, 2013 17:06
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Gardens of the Moon is kind of a mess, but I thought Deadhouse Gates was awesome. The Mappo/Icarium and Chain of whatevers storylines are awesome. In the spirit of Hieronymous Alloy's post, there is other 80s-90s pulp out there that I liked when I was in junior high/high school but that I haven't read since. I loved the Shannara books and Tad Williams' Memory/Sorrow/Thorn when I was a youngster, for instance. I'm not sure how terrible they would seem if I read them today. e: Dennis McKiernan's Iron Tower Trilogy is another LOTR rip-off. gvibes fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Jul 17, 2013 |
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Jul 17, 2013 17:28
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Lex Talionis posted:Finally, there's always literary authors who (whether they admit it or not) are actually writing science fiction! 1984 and Brave New World are worth reading for their own merits even when you aren't in school any more, and more recently there's Atwood's Handmaiden's Tale and Oryx and Crake, Mitchll's Cloud Atlas, McCarthy's The Road, Calvino's Cosmicomics, and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
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Jul 23, 2013 00:06
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Cardiac posted:For fast-moving stuff, Neal Asher and Richard Morgan is probably a good bet. Morgan is cyberpunk, while Asher is space opera.
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Sep 5, 2013 15:04
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I finished that Ancillary Justice book. I thought the first half of the book was a bit of a drag. I didn't really know what was happening, what the conflict was, and or why I should care about what was happening. Second half was very good though. As far as being "progressive" or whatever, the (these are probably not spoilers, but in an abundance of caution) use of the female pronoun as the default was fine, and I didn't really notice it after the first couple of pages. When the author tried to introduce gender pronoun issues relating to different languages or dialects, it just felt kind of tacked on, overly explain-ey, and did not really seem to impact the story at all. I don't know.
gvibes fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Oct 23, 2013 |
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Oct 23, 2013 17:40
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Bremen posted:I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this, but it was the closest I could find. Terror fits as well as others have noted.
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Nov 5, 2013 22:15
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ManOfTheYear posted:I wonder how I can put this in words: Can you guys recommend sci-fi books that have alien and/or robot characters who function like a sentient being that's not human? For example I liked in Mass Effect the alien races having their own cultures and worlds but in the end most of them are just re-skinned humans, with the exceptions of krogans going on and on about war and the asari talking about philosophical lifestyles because they live a thousand years. The Geth were the only actually different race. I'd like to read a book with intelligent life forms who are psychologically completely unlike humans. Bonus points if the life forms is based more or less on an real thing, like an ant colony or something like that.
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Feb 1, 2014 01:26
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RightClickSaveAs posted:The Martian by Andy Weir comes out on Tuesday. It's a near future hard sci-fi that's basically Hatchet (Gary Paulsen's book Hatchet, not the horror movie) set on Mars with an astronaut MacGyver as the main character. It was very fun to read and I blew through it way more quickly than I usually read books.
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Feb 11, 2014 02:40
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Lowkin posted:I've been reading malazan the book of the fallen and I lost interest with it because it just seemed to explode in terms of what was going on and who was gaining what powers. Will I regret not sticking with it?
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Mar 12, 2014 02:53
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Yeah, I was not impressed with it. Some cool ideas (though maybe I'm alone in thinking the gender stuff felt a bit pointless), and if the first book is just serving as a launching point to to books where interesting things happen, then good for her (him? I think it's a her). Other books authored by women and recommended in this thread that I've recently read: Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - I just didn't get this. No interest in reading the remainder. Coldfire Trilogy - This was pretty sweet. I really cruised through these.
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May 10, 2014 06:16
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holocaust bloopers posted:Is Dragon's Path any good?
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May 23, 2014 04:15
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fritz posted:Don't read Dan Simmons except maybe Hyperion.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:43
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my bony fealty posted:Finished reading The Fall of Hyperion tonight after finishing Hyperion a week ago. What a story. One of my favorite novels I've read in a long time; it had been on my list for years and I found both of them at the local book store here a few weeks ago.
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Jul 30, 2014 19:31
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savinhill posted:I just finished Daniel Abraham's new Dagger & Coin book, it was alright. There was some stuff I liked but I think my incorrect assumption that this was the final one messed with my expectations. The concept for the bad guys in this just works less and less for me the more it gets stretched out and the whole defeating them by inventing paper currency is very underwhelming and sorta nonsensical imo. And yeah, it's serviceable.
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Sep 11, 2014 22:13
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I went kind of retro and read Tad Williams' Otherland and Southmarch series. I kind of dug Otherland. It maintained a pretty good narrative pace. The conceit gave the author the opportunity to create some interesting worlds (and some not so interesting ones). Southmarch was pretty bad all around.
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Nov 9, 2014 04:32
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ravenkult posted:Are there any fantasy/scifi/steampunk/whatever books about explorers? Shop of Fools by Russo is another "let's check out this strange artifact" sort of book.
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Jun 19, 2015 04:42
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MrSmokes posted:I really liked Rendezvous with Rama and I'm looking for more books that are similar. I enjoy stories that are about exploring what remains of lost alien civilizations. I prefer stories with a lot of mystery, where not everything is carefully explained, and is instead left to your imagination. As long as the mystery isn't clearly a point where the author couldn't think of something good and cool, and just wanted to get out of having to explain it.
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Sep 25, 2015 16:57
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MrSmokes posted:This book was really awesome and contained the exact kind of mystery and exploration of alien remnants that I was looking for. I finished it in one sitting because I liked it so much, this book seriously nailed it. I'm going to check out some more books that were suggested, but if anyone else knows of any books that are like this, I'd love to check them out. Iain Banks - Excession RIchard Morgan - Broken Angels Simmons - Hyperion Michael Crichton - Sphere also involved a creepy alien artifact, but it may be terrible. It's been a long time. Google suggests, but I haven't read or can't recall: Silverberg's Across a Billion Years Hogan - Inherit the Stars McDevitt - Engines of God
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Sep 29, 2015 22:05
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:The first 15% of Library At Mount Char is good but has a lot of dumb abuse as backstory. The Gunslinger posted:It definitely overstays its welcome and the latter half of the book feels like an entirely different story but I still ended up enjoying it somehow. I've read few books like it, the combination of quasi-historical and supernatural elements was interesting. Simmons can't end a book to save his life but I'm used to that from other authors
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Oct 21, 2015 16:42
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flosofl posted:This is the correct reaction.
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Oct 28, 2015 01:53
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RVProfootballer posted:Oh, btw, is the Shadowmarch set of books anything better?
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Dec 7, 2015 17:01
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-Troika- posted:I could use some recommendations for more military SF to read. Relevant stuff I've already gone through and enjoyed, in no particular order:
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Dec 28, 2015 18:52
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Finished the first book of the "Greatcoats" series by Sebastien de Castell, Traitor's Blade. That was pretty bad. vulturesrow posted:This thread is really knocking it out of the park with recommendations recently so I'm going to my request in. I really really enjoyed Charles Stross's Merchant Princes series so far. Mostly because of all the economics and financial stuff it gets into. Is there anything in the same vein, sci-fi or fantasy, that touches on this sort of stuff ?
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Mar 1, 2016 22:32
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Whoever recommended the Deed of Paksennarion books, I thought they were very good.Hiro Protagonist posted:Are the Codex Alera books any good? I've liked Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, and the idea of Lost Roman Legion meets Pokémon is silly enough to work if done well, but I have my hesitations.
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Apr 18, 2016 18:13
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chrisoya posted:I'm getting the impression that this thread really doesn't like vampires.
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May 4, 2016 18:11
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blackmongoose posted:The Traitor Baru Cormorant uses it all the time so it is now a thread-approved word (because TTBC is awesome) I am dumb.
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Jul 27, 2016 17:39
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MockingQuantum posted:What are some good sci-fi novels that have truly weird aliens or non-Earth planets/ecosystems? I'm fine with stuff that isn't particularly "hard" sci fi. I've really liked books that are willing to let go of scientific rigor for the sake of really neat ideas. For example, I really dug the aliens in A Fire Upon the Deep (and to a lesser extent, A Deepness in the Sky), and some of the creatures in Hull Zero Three.
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Nov 24, 2016 01:59
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Gene Wolfe is very very good at prose style but very bad at plotting coherently. I have a bad habit of writing down context-less recommendations from this thread, which led me to read the fifth head of Cerberus. I have no idea what is happening. And to whoever was asking whether to bother with the fifth season after hundred thousand kingdoms, I too thought hundred thousand Kingdoms was bad. Fifth season is much better.
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Aug 24, 2017 07:15
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coyo7e posted:Thanks its definitely coldfire. I re-read it a few years back and it held up pretty well.
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Sep 23, 2017 15:57
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I finished the southern reach trilogy. I really, really enjoyed the journey, but man, I have no idea wtf happened.Hieronymous Alloy posted:For a different reversal of that trope, I cannot recommend The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans highly enough. It starts out as somewhat schlocky 80's fantasy and just . . .turns character driven, almost by itself. Great solid little book.
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Jan 18, 2018 03:55
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Ornamented Death posted:Alien terraforming device, for a race that has gone extinct. It is not clear whether the aliens are from outer space or another dimension, but probably the latter. I got it at that level, but what's at the bottom of the tower, who is henry, what's the deal with Lowry' phone, what did s&sb have to do with area x, etc
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Jan 18, 2018 04:33
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I got to say general buttbutter, the cover of the next book is fantastic.
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Mar 10, 2018 06:00
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Re sailing books, I kind of enjoyed Dan Simmons’ The Terror. Kind of an arctic exploration/ monster mash up. No Muslims make an appearance, so the crazy doesn’t shine through like it does in some others Simmons books.
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Mar 29, 2018 15:41
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navyjack posted:The Thousand Names by Django Wexler was pretty good, I thought I think the quality stays pretty consistent throughout, though the ending is not exactly a surprise.
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May 8, 2018 16:09
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Rusty posted:I have seen it mentioned once in this thread I think, but Gnomon is a really good book, like kind of amazing. It reminds me a lot of a David Mitchell book, but maybe more dense and better writing. I'm half way through and I think about how good it is all the time. I thought Gone Away World was interesting and worth reading, but I'm not sure I think it was great, this book is different. I haven't finished it, so that could change, but I doubt it. Also, has anyone read Angelmaker (or Tigerman I guess) by Harkaway? Wondering if I should read that after liking this so much.
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Jun 4, 2018 15:10
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I'm about half way through Children of Time, am enjoying it so far, and will stay away from spoilers. But in the meantime, what is his obsession with the word "whilst" e: I also like the David Brin callouts. I haven't read Uplift War or Startide Rising )?) since probably the early 90s. Do they hold up at all? Were they ever good?
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Jul 26, 2018 16:41
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Finished Children of Time. Best piece of lovely genre fiction I’ve read since maybe the southern reach trilogy. He has a lot of fantasy books. Are they tolerable?
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Aug 1, 2018 01:27
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Finished Orconomics. That was not very good. A bad fantasy novel, poorly written, and the humor pieces didn't make up for it. Reading Sweterlitsch's The Gone World now. I'm loving it - can't put it down.
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Sep 7, 2018 21:56
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StrixNebulosa posted:I found a neat thing on reddit: Longest Fantasy Book series Man, I need a loving life. For books 3-8 or so, I re-read the entire series every time a new book was released.
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Sep 27, 2018 04:19
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Cannot freaking wait for monster Baru Cormorant. Reread the first one, still amazing. E: tried reading a Brin uplift book (the second one) after enjoying children of time. This is a bit of a struggle.
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Oct 29, 2018 00:07
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