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Also, don't know what to read? Try this:
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Jun 16, 2013 12:40
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House Louse posted:Ugh, five minutes after I post and I realise how to make up for the picture's size issue. I suck. I figured it was a small oversight  Rythe posted:Wow OP thanks for that amazing picture to the NPR top 100 sci-fi/fantasy books, I have read a ton of books on there already but that picture just opened up 6 more series I need to download and get reading. That was perfect timing too, I just finished the Mistborn trilogy and was in the mood for another series. I am going to start with Iain Banks Culture series or Joe Haldeman The forever War series, any recommendations on what one I should read first? I have Consider Phlebas queue'd up for my next read. Working on Fall of Hyperion now, and really enjoying it.
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Jun 16, 2013 20:33
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Sounds good. The Player of Games is also only 250something pages so it should be pretty quick either way.
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Jun 17, 2013 01:03
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Azathoth posted:Take a look at Monument by Ian Graham. It's pretty dark, but succeeds in telling a self-contained story in a single book. It isn't well-known, but the author tells a story that most other authors would stretch to a trilogy and does so without feeling like it was compressed. I was going to recommend this when I read that post. I picked it up on a whim at Borders solely based on the cover and loved the whole thing. Ballas is a very memorable character (it's been about 8+ years since I read it). I really want more and almost wish the author would make it into a trilogy.
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Jun 17, 2013 23:34
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systran posted:I'm like halfway through book 2 of Hyperion and am not much feeling it any more. Should I keep going? I'm probably about where you are and almost feeling the same way. I tore through book 1 and I agree the narrative structure was highly enjoyable. It made for a nice variety in story telling. But I am showing down immensely in book 2. To anybody who finished book 2: does it continue in the same narrative style throughout the rest of the book? (awake cybrid / dreaming cybrid)
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Jun 23, 2013 21:37
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Kilmers Elbow posted:Finished Hyperion last week following a spell of Simmons-induced ennui. I liked Hyperion enough. I enjoyed the short story aspect of each of the pilgrim's tales (The priests being my favorite, I agree the detectives was the worst). I got about halfway through Fall of Hyperion about a year ago and decided to re-start at the beginning, realized I don't remember much at all about it, and am having trouble making my way through it. I'm finding 2001 A Space Odyssey to be more interesting at the moment. On the other hand, the last story I finished was Leviathan Wakes which was amazing. Is Caliban's War worth reading?
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Sep 16, 2014 19:43
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McCoy Pauley posted:Yes -- Caliban's War is definitely worth reading. Awesome thanks!
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Sep 16, 2014 20:56
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Nuclear Tourist posted:While still good, I didn't think Caliban's War quite lived up to the high standards of awesomeness set in Leviathan Wakes. And I really didn't care much for Abaddon's Gate, which leaves me a little worried for the future of the series since they're contracted to write, what, nine more books in this universe? I enjoyed Leviathan's Wake immensely, but was a little thrown off by the direction it took at the end with the whole Julie thing. Does it continue in that direction?
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Sep 17, 2014 15:56
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systran posted:I'm reading FOREVER WAR... I know what you mean. I'm at the last few chapters of 2001: A Space Odyssey (finishing tonight), and what you say holds true here as well. I like how Clark maintained a sense of reality (the mission to the outer belts, taking a seemingly realistically approachable length of time). One of the main themes that impressed me was Clark's prediction of Big Data (as it relates to my job). Discovery One sends back mass amounts of data to be analyzed by scientists later. This is a very simplified explanation of how big data works in today's world. I never heard anybody mention this before, and it really wasn't focused on in the book. If you haven't read 2001 yet, I highly recommend it. edit: Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:I'm reading 2001 right now and am finding the same thing, it's pretty funny. The book is amazing though so I can look past the fact that it's 2014 and we're no where near the stuff Clarke was positing we could be at 13 years ago. What chapter are you on?
Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Sep 22, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 15:21
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Just finished 34 - The Orbiting Ice and am probably not terribly far from where you are since I also expect I'll be finishing it tonight Just a bit further. Halfway through Part Six. Can't wait to finish it tonight and hear your thoughts. edit: about a part we've both read, I really liked HAL in the book. It just seemed more cold and calculated. The opening of the air lock doors gave me chills. And then HAL's begging, and eventual regression. Reading this has really sparked new understanding of the film, despite the differences. Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Sep 22, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 15:37
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Yeah, opening the airlock was a huge "oh poo poo" moment. You're right. Bowman handles the isolation spectacularly well. I appreciated the monotony was described in the book, how Bowman and Poole worked together as professionals, how they grew to know each other, and how Bowman had to deal with HAL's mutiny (carefully calculating each response, knowing every tiny detail of his communication was being dissected at the most intricate level).
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Sep 22, 2014 17:09
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savinhill posted:Can people identify what book they're posting the blocks of black lines for? Sorry. Didn't think it was necessary since that conversation started about 3 posts prior within a 2 hour time period. systran posted:2001: A Space Odyssey, which you DEFINITELY don't want spoiled... lol In fairness, the closer to the end of the book you get the more it diverges from the movie. I started reading the book knowing this, but am happy I didn't actually read anything that directly gave away some of the moments that surprised me, so I figured others might feel the same way. edit: finished it, then skipped through the movie and watched the different parts, and the end. I'm going to try to not annoy the hell out of everyone I know ranting all day how amazing 2001 is. Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Sep 23, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 22:00
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House Louse posted:Actually most dinosaurs, not just theropods, may have had feathers. I like to imagine ceratopsians with long flowing quills on their frills. Or perhaps hadrosaurs.  totally not as cool, stop raining on the dino-knight parade
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Sep 25, 2014 15:21
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House Louse posted:I bet you hate griffins too. And giant eagles. And rocs. Although the main problem that guy has is that he's sitting on his bird's neck. I don't mind all of those things because they're not trying to change dinosaurs.
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Sep 25, 2014 17:07
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mallamp posted:Do we even know if Dinosaur Lords takes place on earth? I doubt it's historical fantasy. It probably takes place on planet Pluto.
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Sep 25, 2014 19:32
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Are there any goon scifi book club things? I mean besides this thread. Something where chapters are set each week and discussed? I stuck with it through the first few books back when we read Wheel of Time and enjoyed it quite a bit and would like to do that again. Looked the TBB but didn't find one. If not, anybody feel like doing that?
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Sep 26, 2014 02:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:We have the Book of the Month and right now someone's running a mystery read-along but there's no current let's read for SF or F. I am going to make Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October next month's book of the month. That sounds interesting, might get in on that. I'd be down for a let's read of some good SF.
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Sep 26, 2014 02:30
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Amberskin posted:I liked the second book more than the first one. And yes, it is about a different person, indirectly related to Perry. I "read" this one in audiobook from audible, and it was fantastic. The book wasn't originally expected to be such a success as it was. The author was simply an astrophysics nerd writing as a hobby. He published serialized chapters on his blog for free. People then asked him to convert it to ebook formats for ease of reading, and then asked him to put it on amazon for an even easier method of putting on a kindle, it got tons of downloads, got noticed, got published, got on the NY Times best seller list, and is now going to be made into a movie directed by Ridley Scott.
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Sep 29, 2014 16:44
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Kraps posted:Holy crap, have a link? No but basically just google the martian ridley scott Amberskin posted:Yeah, I felt the same. The interactions between the earth characters are quite awful and cliche. You have all the usual suspects: the risk-averse beaurocrat, the brilliant-but-socially-inept geek, the not-so-shy-but-charming female and so on. Somehow it recalls also some Arthur C. Clarke writings. Zero character development, lots of pretty ideas-science-engineering stuff. I don't think this book even needed character development. It was simply about a well-rounded and intelligent person that has to think themselves out of a situation. Everybody in the book was professional. You're right about a few of the cliche's, but I felt that's just the way it is in that environment. I can see how some people may not like that. Regarding Watney, the author specifically stated in an interview that he didn't want to focus on the emotional impact that level of solitude would create. I guess there was some sort of emotional journey, but it isn't talked about much, at least until the end, and only regarding the protagonist.
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Sep 29, 2014 17:16
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Kraps posted:I put that up to training and the need to survive. IIRC I think Watney sometimes loses it but immediately recovers because of that. Log Entry: Sol X I am hosed and I'm gonna die! (explains situation) Log Entry: Sol X 2 Well, I'm not dead! (explains how situation was solved)
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Sep 29, 2014 18:11
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mallamp posted:Martian? Yes, but people* will say it's Gravity ripoff and it'll flop. *People who haven't read the book
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Oct 11, 2014 16:24
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Good to hear positive things about The Peripheral. Just listened to the first 5 or 6 chapters on audible driving home from the holidays. I wanted to get some clarity so if anybody who has read it can help clear it up I get what's going on with Flynne and Burton. But what the hell is up with this skydiving tattooed performance artist or whatever-the-gently caress? As usual, Gibson's prose is leaving me a little confused here.
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Dec 2, 2014 15:45
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Kesper North posted:You're not supposed to know yet. That confusion is intentional on Gibson's part.  yeah I figured.Re-listened to just those chapters now (on 8 now) at 1.5x (which is, laughably, normal speed for this narrator - I'll probably do it for the rest of the book) and she just landed on the patcher's island thing edit: and they were apparently shredded to bits. Interested to see where this goes! Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 16:22
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Junkenstein posted:Talking about the Goodread awards, anything, erm, good in there? I see City of Stairs, which I'm currently enjoying, but there also seems to be some questionable stuff in there as well. I couldn't get into City of Stairs. It felt too political. I might try it again because I keep seeing good things being said about it.
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Dec 3, 2014 15:18
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systran posted:I'm halfway through City of Stairs and the present tense is still irking me. It just feels like they are not making actual use of the present tense and that it was done for no real reason. I strongly feel that third-person past is the default, and unless you have a good reason to deviate from that, don't. First-person present is also another form of a default, but third-person present is just really weird to me. This was another thing. It didn't keep my attention very well and there are too many books on my reading list to waste time on one that doesn't grip me. Now that I'm a little further into the The Peripheral, things are starting to make sense and I'm really like it.
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Dec 3, 2014 16:19
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Mark Watney is man's man. A steely eyed missile man.
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Dec 3, 2014 16:53
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RVProfootballer posted:I'm reading The Martian now and enjoying it in general, but I'm not too impressed with the diary writing. It feels sort of lazy to me, I guess. It could've been written in 3rd person with lots of internal monologue from Mark and then had much better writing about the scenery and stuff. I haven't read them, but if I remember correctly there were other Mars books that basically had Mars as a well-described character, which some people found boring. I think that would've been a better format for this book, as then I think things like Mark's utter isolation and Mars' desolation could've come through a lot better. I think this is partly because the author originally wrote it as a serialized blog, in which he challenged himself with overcoming technical problems. It wasn't intended as a book until fans of the blog encouraged him to make it available in ebook format, then he put it out as a novel and it was a huge success. It's actually very interesting how it came to be.
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Dec 3, 2014 18:59
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I'm neck deep in a few books right now (Caliban's War, The Quantum Thief, Fall of Hyperion, The Children of Hurin) but I'm looking for a recommendation for my wife, who wants to get into something good. She was asking me for recommendations but I didn't really know what to recommend as I'm into different stuff. She's looking for: - Less than 500 pages (not exact, but she's seen me reading Wheel of Time paperbacks...) - Fairytale fantasy - mythology may include but is not limited to magic, dragons, other folklore creatures - She mentioned she likes Stardust (Gaiman) in terms of its fairytale stuff (She also likes Ever After, Grim, and Into the Woods so there's that) - Not Game of Thrones level violence or sex stuff (although we enjoy GoT together) - Not vampires (past her Sookie phase) - She didn't specifically state, but I'm sure the strong female protagonist would be great Also, last book I finished was City of Stairs, and that poo poo was good. I didn't like it at first - thought it was too political/religion-centric (read first chapter, put it down for a few weeks, picked it up on a whim and powered through). I told her she'd probably like that a lot so she may pick it up too. Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 15:57
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Those are some great sounding recommendations! Thanks!
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Mar 2, 2015 16:36
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andrew smash posted:Mythago wood, Robert holdstock. Excellent especially in the "fairytale fantasy" sense. Dang I want to read that one. I put these suggestions on an amazon wishlist for her. Can't wait to see what she picks. I'll probably read along.
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Mar 2, 2015 18:10
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Jedit posted:The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner sounds almost perfect. Nice, I've added those to the list. I'm adding all of these to an amazon wishlist for her kindle. We'll probably end up hunting for those without a kindle edition at the local book store. I also added The Windup Girl, as I've read good things about it (I know it's not exactly what I described, but I think she'll like it)
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Mar 3, 2015 14:10
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Snuffman posted:As much as I loved the story and setting, the brutal and graphic rape scene mid way through the book always makes Windup Girl a tricky recommendation. Hm, good to know. I thought I remembered reading a spoiler about that while back. I'll probably just warn her.
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Mar 3, 2015 15:00
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Blood of Elves: I'm a fan of the Witcher games. I snuck this on the list to see if she'll read it and like it, then I can gloat that she read a book based on a video game I like. Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell: Added for later. Probably not one to get her going, but sounds like something she might like later on. Auntie Mame series: Haha, she might really like that a lot. Sounds like Dresden Files but an older lady? Seanan Mcquire's Indexing: Sounds good, added (bonus points for kindle unlimited). I'm adding these all to an amazon wishlist. I got her a kindle for her as an early birthday present (should arrive today), so she's probably just going to go to that list and get a few. Books that aren't on kindle are added to the list so maybe we can find it at the local bookstore. She's also probably going to pick the one that she can get her friends to read as sort of a book club, but they're all into such different stuff that they can't even decide on what tv show to watch together. In other news: I'm loving the gently caress out of The Quantum Thief (although I had to start it over after visiting wikipedia to figure out what the hell was going on. It makes so much more sense now that I know what all this technology is, and it's amazing.)
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Mar 3, 2015 16:24
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Forgall posted:Games are based on books, not other way around actually. Kalenn Istarion posted:The Witcher games are based on the books, not the other way around.  Mind. Blown. That's actually what I meant. That I can gloat that she liked a book that a video game I like was based on. Too much coffee. But thanks for quoting my oversight for posterity! Megazver posted:If she doesn't know, he can still gloat about it. And gloat I will. Rest assured. Seriously nobody wants to talk about The Quantum Thief? I love this poo poo and that thread is dead.
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Mar 3, 2015 20:09
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withak posted:The secret to reading Dune is read in the order they were written, and to stop as soon as you finish a book that you don't like that much. They only get worse from there. This goes hand in hand with the quote posted quote:Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife — chopping off what’s incomplete and saying: "Now it’s complete because it’s ended here."
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Mar 15, 2015 21:05
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Just finished The Quantum Thief. Man, that was good. I didn't want it to end. Does The Fractal Prince just pick up where TQT left off? I had to stop reading the Hannu thread at page 3 to avoid TFP spoilers.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:00
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Antti posted:So these days buying books in dead tree is more a question of collecting and loaning to others than actually buying to read. What a time to be alive. Printed books are the new vinyl records. edit: speaking of grim-dark fantasy - I'm looking for some quick reading, dark, visceral high fantasy current / ongoing series to get into to balance out complexity and confusion of The Quantum Thief trilogy. I like to balance my sci-fi with fantasy, and heavy reading with casual reading. I normally trog through the Wheel of Time or Game of Thrones, and I was about halfway through The Children of Hurin, but I'm looking for something more casual and also current (so I'm reading what others are actively reading and want to converse about, instead of reading through the classics). I want something that's less about historical lineage and keeping up with houses and alliances, and more about kicking rear end, but I don't want to read a straight up D&D campaign or something I would've thought was rad in high school (I'm looking at you, Drizzt). I was thinking that The Black Company might fill that hole - is that really what I'm looking for? tl;dr: I'm looking for a current Conan-type series to get into edit 2: The Fractal Prince: gently caress this is good. Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Mar 19, 2015 |
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Mar 19, 2015 14:53
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the JJ posted:The Black Company is great and basically what you describe. The Lies of Locke Lamorra are basically that plus a really good heist movie, so that'd be cool too. Nice. Figured I was on the right path. I just signed up for goodreads -
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Mar 19, 2015 15:45
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A while back there was a thread for reading through the WoT as a group, with designated chapters for each week. (A "let's read"?) Anybody feel like doing something like that some sci-fi/space opera series? (Or should this go in the space opera thread)
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Mar 20, 2015 15:22
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Ani posted:I thought Three Parts Dead was pretty lighthearted and read very quickly, whereas City of Stairs was relatively slower going, and felt a bit more "literary". If you like it (I did!) the author has written two other books in the same universe, but with different characters. I read City of Stairs immediately after William Gibson's The Peripheral, and it felt like such an easy quick read. Now that I'm reading The Causal Angel, CoS feels like a children's book. Basically what I'm saying is gently caress, this poo poo is confusing and hard to process but it's so goddamn good
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Apr 2, 2015 17:24
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