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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? The Forever War, and stick with the first one.
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Jun 16, 2013 17:53
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Smapti posted:Consider Phlebas is exceptional. Along with Use of Weapons and Excession it's among my favorite Culture books. (My favorite Banks SF book, Feersum Endjinn, isn't a Culture book; it's a standalone but is well worth reading.) gently caress Feersum Endjinn. It's one of the worst books I've ever failed to finish reading. I'll second Megazver's assertion that The Player of Games is a far better place to start reading Culture than Consider Phlebas. It's infinitely more accessible and gives perhaps even more insight into what the Culture is about.
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Jun 17, 2013 00:29
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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). Congratulations, you read the one Discworld two-parter. Every other Discworld book can be read by itself, though there are some you want to read in a set order.
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Jun 17, 2013 18:15
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Symptomless Coma posted:After listening to this fantastic interview from 1989 in which he narrates a kind of sci-fi of the present, I think I have a writerly crush on JG Ballard. Those that have read him - where should I start? Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women, but they're not SF. Try The Drowned World.
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Jun 17, 2013 21:08
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systran posted:Some of them are really lame. I can't remember which one, but the big awesome reveal (the book acts like it is awesome but it is exceptionally boring) of it is that A planet is a giant diamond. It's 2061: Odyssey Three, and it's actually talking about the theory that Jupiter's core is a giant diamond. This is interesting science, but it is in no way "the big reveal". That's what happens when Heywood Floyd joins Dave Bowman and HAL in the Monolith.
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Jun 19, 2013 19:14
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Xik posted:I'm looking for a change of pace from Space Opera, something where the main character(s) are thief's, pirates or something along those lines. If it's fantasy then something where they pick locks, break into rich folk homes etc. If it's science fiction then perhaps ~space pirates~ or something similar to Firefly. I'm honestly not really sure what I'm looking for and am pretty open to suggestions, I'm mostly just after something where the main character goes around robbing poo poo. Can anyone recommend me something? The Stainless Steel Rat.
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Jun 20, 2013 22:41
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mllaneza posted:Cook's talent for plot is readily apparent in the first few books of the Black Company series. How does this sound for a novel: So it's a bad book, then. Condensing the plot of a whole novel into one chapter is as bad as stretching out one chapter's worth of plot into a whole novel.
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Jun 23, 2013 09:14
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Loving Life Partner posted:That's actually something I wanted to ask, after I made my post I kind of thought about it and wondered how true what I was saying was, because while Malazan does have a lot of significant female characters, they don't really do a whole lot of things that'd identify them as female, their gender for the most part doesn't even matter. To the point where the (male) historian Duiker is grabbed by a female Marine and informed that if they both survive an upcoming battle she's going to bang his brains out. They do, and she does.
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Jul 9, 2013 19:04
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andrew smash posted:I haven't read stardust so I can't comment there. Between the other two, i think neverwhere is better on reflection but american gods is paced really well and you will fly through it, so I would start there. The problem with American Gods is that if you've read any other Gaiman, you'll know exactly what's going to happen all the way through. It steals too much from other works.
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Jul 10, 2013 12:59
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coyo7e posted:He's pretty consistently going to do the same stuff however, a lot of his books are not like those two at all - often they have a children's story quality to them, as people were mentioning above. I lost a lot of respect for Gaiman's creativity when I found that the Silver Age Sandman and Prez Rickard appear in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2. The title for Neverwhere was also lifted from a Roger McKenzie series that was stillborn due to DC's collapse in the late 70s. It didn't matter too much in the long run because The Sandman was always about retelling stories, but Gaiman didn't look too far to find them.
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Jul 10, 2013 20:22
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Megazver posted:This... doesn't really make any sense? In what way?
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Jul 10, 2013 20:44
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coyo7e posted:President Rickard was a thing in the '70s. Did Gaiman claim that it was his character that he created? Hell, The entire premise was lifted directly from a film/novella originally, anyway. Say I'd been comparing and contrasting stories by two dozen authors and you thought I was extremely well read. Then you find out all the stories I've been talking about have been collected in a single volume. How would you feel about me then? I'm not complaining that the things in Sandman aren't original. I'm saying that because Gaiman got them from a narrow set of sources, he is much less erudite than people make him out to be.
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Jul 10, 2013 23:50
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House Louse posted:I'v only read the first two Long Price books; they struck me as being much more influenced by non-fantastic fiction than most fantasy - their limited scale, scope, and POVs. The magic is neat (it's all done by ideas reified by poems, and the poet who writes the poem controls the resulting creature) and pleasingly central without being overpowering. The characters are good and there are interesting details, like the gesture language (albeit unsuccessful) or how the second book was a rewrite of Macbeth. They're four self-contained novel-length novels. But though I enjoyed them, there's something that held me back from thoroughly enjoying them, probably his prose - they weren't quite brilliant, but better than nine of ten fantasy books, for sure. Daniel Abraham is a protege of George RR Martin. He's done quite a bit of work on Wild Cards, including sole authorship of the most recent comic miniseries. And like Martin, it takes him a while to get where he's going sometimes. The third and fourth Long Price novels are where the real meat is; they're dark and pretty drat good.
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Jul 11, 2013 21:09
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The Gunslinger posted:What's the best starting point with Mieville? I'm going to get funny looks for this, but try Dial H. It's sublimely strange.
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Jul 13, 2013 11:01
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coyo7e posted:David Gemmell. He has single novels, trilogies, and longer series. Also the majority of his books take place in the same overall universe and it's fun to recognize elements from one series, in a seemingly entirely different one. He died though, so don't start with Ironhand's Daughter because that trilogy will never be finished. The Hawk Queen is complete in two books. Gemmell went back and covered much of the same ground in the Rigante novels, too. Gemmell's stuff is split into two big blocks - the Drenai Saga and the Sipstrassi Tales - plus three minor series (Hawk Queen, Rigante, Troy) and two standalone novels (Dark Moon and Echoes of the Great Song). There's four books that don't obviously fit into either of the big blocks, but the Parmenion novels feature Sipstrassi and the country where Knights of Dark Renown and Morningstar are set is off the northeastern coast of the mainland in the Drenai world.
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Jul 17, 2013 22:25
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coyo7e posted:The Rigante and Troy were also set in the sipstrassi universe I believe, along with the Jon Shannow ones which I assume you already had included. Echoes of the Great Song as well, iirc. The Shannow books are explicitly Sipstrassi Tales; Wolf in Shadow was actually the first in the series. Echoes of the Great Song includes something similar to Bloodstones, but it's not Sipstrassi. The Rigante books are set in an alternate Europe, whereas the Sipstrassi books are all set on Earth; it might be possible that there's a reference to the Stones that I've forgotten, but I'd need a reference. And Troy features no magic at all, other than Cassandra's prophecies.
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Jul 17, 2013 23:00
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Charlz Guybon posted:Anyone know if these books are as much pulp fun as the titles/covers indicate? The title of the third book in particular is fantastic. The author tells his jokes with a shotgun, but when he hits he really hits. It's probably worth reading them just for Suruk the Slayer.
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Jul 18, 2013 15:52
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Vinterstum posted:Plus his two main series are essentially carbon copies of each other, with the names of the characters and locations replaced. They really are not. The only major similarities between the Belgariad/Malloreon and the Elenium/Tamuli are that there's a magical blue stone, a wizardess and a nation of faux-Vikings. Beyond that, the characters in the Sparhawk books are entirely different apart from a few generic traits like "highly devout" or "good with his hands" and the focus of the story is much wider than the simple quest narrative of the Belgariad.
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Jul 21, 2013 23:39
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Vinterstum posted:Seriously? Both feature a warrior-mage protagonist who's fighting an evil god and a former ally-turned-traitor, with the help of his magic blue stone and a bantering band of archetypes. Along the way he gets married, becomes royalty, and is mentored by the stern-but-fair sorceress. That's about the most generic description you could possibly give.
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Jul 22, 2013 12:59
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Loving Life Partner posted:Hot drat, Locke Lamora was so good. Liar! quote:All I wanted to do was imagine other ways to enjoy it, particularly some type of The Guild type of game. Liar! quote:Can't wait to read the next 2. BASTARD! (If you don't understand this post, please go read the book.)
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Jul 23, 2013 12:24
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neongrey posted:That's weird because it's definitely coming out in like a couple months now. Yes, it's confirmed for October. We should see more volumes on a less geological timeline, too - one of the biggest holdups with Republic of Thieves was that Lynch realised he'd made a major error in Locke's game and would have to rewrite it from scratch.
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Jul 25, 2013 10:26
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Piell posted:The Rama sequels are pretty lovely, I recommend not reading them. They made a reasonable stab at explaining the mystery. The problem is that the mystery was more interesting when left unexplained.
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Jul 29, 2013 18:54
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General Battuta posted:If you're going to start Malazan start with the second book. You'll have no idea what's going on either way and it's a better book. A better suggestion is to buy Memories of Ice but only read the prologue. By the time you're done with that you'll know if you like the writing, and you won't be spoiled for anything in the story's present day - or at least, nothing you'll notice until it happens.
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Aug 14, 2013 19:42
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:There's always Heinlein's By His Bootstraps and/or All You Zombies. They're not time travel stories, they're weird sex stories. This is Heinlein, remember?
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Aug 16, 2013 09:54
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Chairchucker posted:Personally, I rather liked the movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt about that cliche. Not the best use, just the most excellent.
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Aug 18, 2013 08:13
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buildmorefarms posted:My wife's hunting for some examples (for a class of 16-17 year olds) of "difficult/sophisticated" fantasy novels in order to demonstrate how titles within the same genre can vary wildly in terms of: A Canticle For Leibowitz sounds perfect for these requirements, but it's SF. The Lies of Locke Lamora would do for fantasy if you don't mind bleeping out the swear words.
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Aug 21, 2013 08:55
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Datasmurf posted:So I am looking for some new fantasy to read. The other three-quarters of Discworld.
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Aug 25, 2013 10:40
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John Charity Spring posted:Player of Games is the other one that's recommended as a starting point. If you're interested at all, just keep reading in publication order, although you'll know by Player of Games whether you want to keep reading or not. This is not strictly true. I really like The Player of Games, but dislike the other Culture stories I've read. (I didn't think much of The Wasp Factory either, for what it's worth.)
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Aug 25, 2013 11:02
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Leper Residue posted:I'm trying to get through the Foundation Series. I got through Prelude easily enough, I found all the different sections of Trantor rather interesting. Now I'm on Forward to Foundation, about 20% through, and I am struggling. It's gotten so boring, I don't care about JoJO, or Twisting, or the emperor anymore. It's taken me almost as long to get through that 20% as it did for me to read all of Prelude. Your problem is that you're reading the books in story order, not publication order. The prequels were written much later, when Asimov's HIV had begun to take its toll. Read Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.
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Aug 31, 2013 17:00
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buildmorefarms posted:Locke Lamora seems to be a big favourite with the class currently, so I guess the kids these days aren't all bad. They won't be so keen when you ask for an essay comparing it with Oliver Twist.  And the book is basically about Oliver Twist when he grows up, if you stop to think. Locke is the Artful Dodger, Jean is Oliver and the Thiefmaker is Fagin.
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Sep 3, 2013 10:27
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Hedrigall posted:It's meandering, Shadow is a personality-less main character, and Neil Gaiman is clearly better at writing comics than prose. The plot is pretty much obvious if you've read any kind of myth or The Sandman. I don't regret reading American Gods, but I have no urge to read it again.
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Sep 5, 2013 09:12
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spider wisdom posted:The OP already has plenty of authors for me to check out (and my book backlog is already frighteningly huge) but I'm curious about what's up with Jeff Noon. I've heard his name mentioned vis a vis surreal cyberpunk-ish modern scifi, and that sounds intriguing. Where should I start? And just for fun, the last 3 books I read were McCarthy's The Road, Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy and DeLillo's White Noise. Start with Automated Alice. Finish there as well.
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Sep 6, 2013 18:55
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mllaneza posted:His Lost legion series is pretty decent: a Roman legion departs our world for one in which something like Byzantium reigns and magic is real. If you don't mind the LBGT issues too much it's a solid four book series. What LGBT issues? The two main characters who are gay are portrayed no differently from their counterparts, and although they keep it quiet because the Roman legions weren't exactly pro-gay literally nobody who knows about them treats them negatively because of it.
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Sep 17, 2013 15:12
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Rough Lobster posted:Can anyone recommend some good Harlan Ellison? I've read The Region Between and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. I loved both and they've made an impression on me. Strange Wine is a must-read collection.
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Sep 22, 2013 00:10
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Argali posted:I could use some assistance here. I picked up an old paperback copy of Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone, which I think is itself a reprint of the originally titled The Dreaming City. I'd really like to keep reading the Elric books in order, but with all the reprints and renaming, which book should I get next? Classic Elric reading order: Elric of Melnibone Sailor on the Seas of Fate Weird of the White Wolf The Vanishing Tower Bane of the Black Sword Stormbringer
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Sep 27, 2013 13:20
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House Louse posted:This is accurate but leaves out the later Elric stuff. Hence the word "classic". Regarding Abercrombie: I didn't even get through The Blade Itself before giving up.
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Sep 27, 2013 17:00
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8one6 posted:Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm reading Jurassic Park for the first time and just ran across something weird: "...for one thing, they used computers constantly, a practice traditional mathematicians frowned on." Was this true when JP was published, or is this Crichton blowing smoke? I was 5 when the book was published so I have no idea the state of mathematics at the time. It took research mathematicians a while to fully adopt computer processing because they like to be able to verify the working. However, as the first computers were built specifically to perform routine mathematical tasks faster than humans possibly could, Crichton's science is as usual full of poo poo.
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Oct 9, 2013 12:04
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I have a copy of The Republic of Thieves in my sweaty little paws. 60 pages down, 530 to go.
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Oct 9, 2013 17:27
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Just finished The Republic of Thieves. It's a troubled book and the end feels a little awkward, but it's still good.
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Oct 11, 2013 20:51
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Phummus posted:I just finished The Long Earth and The Long War. The concepts in them are interesting enough to carry the books, but at no point did I ever feel any tension or conflict in the books. I think due to the nature of the world(s) they were written in, and in particular the nature of Lobsang and later Agnes, there's really nothing to worry about on the whole. When your protagonists can jump from one world to another, its difficult to set up any kind of climactic scenes That's hardly a spoiler when it's in the first chapter and forms the central premise of the entire series. Also I think you're wrong. The Long Earth series is, as the name suggests, about the long game - how the discovery of stepping and that we are not the sole dominant species any more, and the ELE on Datum Earth are going to change humanity.
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Oct 30, 2013 23:19
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