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Anyone else having 'crashes' when using the publisher font on the kindle version of Dark Forest?
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Aug 11, 2015 23:52
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gohmak posted:I really should have reread three-body. The concept is only introduced in Dark Forest, don't worry.
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Aug 13, 2015 20:53
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I'm 40% through Dark Forest and I'm enjoying it well enough, I guess, but it's not exactly bursting with ideas and imagery like Three Body Problem.
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Aug 18, 2015 14:04
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The Gunslinger posted:Forgetting fantasy for a moment I finally found a Reynolds book I like - House of Suns was an absolute delight and I could barely put it down at times. He have anything else of that caliber? I didn't care for Revelation Space and it really turned me off trying his other stuff for awhile. Not really, House of Suns is kinda the standard "even if you didn't like Revelation Space, you should still give this a go" recommendation.
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Aug 19, 2015 16:10
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Funny, Authority was by far my least favourite, although I appreciated it more after Acceptance.
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Aug 20, 2015 12:59
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I'd imagine the last three books aren't so bad if read straight through as a standard fantasy series. A lot of the disappointment at the time was because all of that 'Dark Tower Related' stuff turned out to be nonsense.
Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Sep 15, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 12:49
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How long does this primitive alien stuff last in A Fire Upon The Deep? It's not that I don't find it interesting, just not really what I signed up for.
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Sep 15, 2015 22:09
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How does Cixin Liu's The Wandering Earth compare to the Three Body books? Edit: Oh wait, it looks like a novella, despite amazon.co.uk listing the print length as 482 pages. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 16:15
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Bunch of stuff in the UK Kindle daily deal today, including Luna (£9 off!) and (all?) the First Law stuff, Mistborn 1, Rothfuss....... I added Luna to my wishlist after rsjr's recommendation on the last page, so I'd be a fool not to at that price. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Oct 16, 2015 |
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Oct 16, 2015 09:59
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chrisoya posted:Last Call is also in there, if anyone hasn't read Tim Powers' second-greatest work. Oh poo poo, there's actually a hell of a lot more than appears in the usual Kindle Daily bit. The 'Deal of the Day' seems to be SF and Fantasy Kindle books.
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Oct 16, 2015 11:00
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:Authority was terrible. The author can write a hell of a creepy wall writing in a confined space scene. Shame about all that other stuff. It could have worked as an epistolary novel. The narrator was always a step behind and mainly existed to drip information from documents. Print the reports instead of desperately trying to stretch a narrative with horrendous pacing. For what it's worth, I disliked Authority but appreciated it a lot more after reading the final book.
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Oct 20, 2015 21:23
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Luna: New Moon sure has a shitload of characters to keep track of for a 400 page book.
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Oct 28, 2015 15:46
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Ahh Yes posted:With Luna: New Moon, I hope he writes a sequel (given how clearly the set up for one was crafted -- i.e. that cliff hanger!). Always intended as a duology, I believe., so don't worry.
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Nov 2, 2015 11:54
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Looks like Planetfall, which is getting a bit of buzz, is out now on Kindle, a few days before the paper version.
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Nov 3, 2015 14:29
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Onion Knight posted:My question: people online (and my friend) say that it gets good after the first half, then really good thereafter. On the other hand TBP got a lot of breathless western reviews (~*China's Asimov*~). Does it actually get any better? It does but I think it's fair to say the series isn't for you. I don't see how recommending Dark Forest to someone who hated Three Body was a good idea. Edit: since you've started though, maybe read up until the orbital assassination then decide if you want to go on. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 6, 2015 17:46
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Are the Rama sequels worth bothering with?
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Dec 15, 2015 17:45
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Thanks guys. I suspected the Rama sequels were one of those cases where they expanded on something that was best left alone, but wanted to check. ToxicFrog posted:
The newly released Planetfall is really good. It's not really about the Big Dumb Object, but that's relatively interesting on it's own and has a few cool exploration scenes.
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Dec 15, 2015 19:47
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xian posted:If you haven't read City of Stairs, now would be a good time, as the sequel is meant to be coming out imminently. Thursday!
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Jan 2, 2016 22:01
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blue squares posted:So can I just read a plot summary of Authority and then read Acceptance? I didn't enjoy Authority that much, but I was glad I read it by the time I got to Acceptance. The way it brings everything together kinda made Authority retroactively better.
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Jan 8, 2016 17:51
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Rough Lobster posted:How's the show? I haven't heard much chatter about it but it's caught my eye on Netflix. Seems to be pretty highly rated. It's pretty decent. Oddly for someone reading this thread, I found the more it veered towards cyperpunky sci-f conspiracies, the less I liked it.
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Jan 9, 2016 17:56
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Is there any series where reading out of publication order is widely agreed to give the best experience? Stuff like 'don't read Consider Phlebas first' doesn't really count.
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Jan 13, 2016 16:17
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angel opportunity posted:Expanse TV Show is quite good but with the following caveats: Oh thank God, I thought I was going deaf. Thanks to whoever wrote that blog post recommending The first fifteen lives of Harry August, it's a great mix of genres. Hopefully polish that off over the weekend so I can finally start City of Blades.
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Jan 15, 2016 15:08
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gohmak posted:Aurora basically made the reader realize that they where no better than the initial planners and voyagers that condemed the future generations to a fate they didn't choose for themselves. gently caress them and gently caress you if you don't agree that they deserve to enjoy the planet from which they came. I guess my only complaint with Aurora was that after setting up this idea, it kinda took the easy way out by having the returning crew suddenly invent cold sleep. It obviously makes it a more satisfying narrative seeing the protagonists reach home, but it slightly cheapens the idea in my opinion. It was a huge sacrifice for this middle generation, giving up any chance of living on a planet so that a future generation wouldn't pay for the decisions of a previous one, but hey look cold sleep capsules, yay.* *I'm not actually as down on it as that makes me sound, just a thought.
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Jan 16, 2016 14:19
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occamsnailfile posted:Like the first contact Trisolarian--how would he have hidden his knowledge of Earth's transmission from the others? If I remember correctly, he didn't. All he did was immediately get a message to Earth saying 'shut the gently caress up'. He knew the Trisolarians would know about the signal
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Feb 16, 2016 11:01
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uberkeyzer posted:Any suggestions for a SF/F book to pick for a book club of non-genre readers? Only real limitations is that it can't be overly long and that it be able to sustain some light discussion. Also, given the audience, something with crossover appeal would be nice -- in other words, something that would appeal to someone who would never normally choose to read SF/F. I'd previously picked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which went over pretty well and led to some interesting talk about gender and politics. I was considering The Left Hand of Darkness or The Parable of the Sower or maybe Wasp (which totally doesn't fit but which I have an unreasonable love for and think would lead to some good discussion). Another option is The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which I really enjoyed -- but I'm worried that it might not be accessible enough. Any thoughts/successful experiences of recommending to non-genre readers would be welcome. What about Planetfall? Definitely some discussion possible from that, but don't want to spoil too much.
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Feb 19, 2016 17:14
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I'm just finishing Red Rising book 2 actually and it definitely went in the direction I wanted. I was afraid it would just be more hunger games but this time in a space academy. I can't help but feel like the number of plots and allegiances and broken allegiances and fake broken allegiances could have been streamlined though. How's the third (final?) book? Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Mar 17, 2016 |
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Mar 17, 2016 15:38
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coyo7e posted:If you do not understand how "a bunch of high-school kids are forced to run around in the woods and kill each other," has parallels to Hunger Games/Maze Runner/etc then you probably have some serious issue that I can't figure out. Did you only read the first 8 words of that post and extrapolate from there or something?
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Mar 19, 2016 12:48
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drat, much longer wait between books. Although I much preferred the translation for Three Body, so the wait is probably worth it.
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Mar 24, 2016 19:12
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I thought the explicit sex fit perfectly with all the explicit violence myself.
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Mar 29, 2016 14:21
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Is Paul McAuley any good? Amazon just recommended his new book, the sequel to Something Coming Through. Those and The Quiet war seem right up my alley.
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Apr 27, 2016 09:49
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Neurosis posted:and a stephen baxter novel Is that on top of the Arthur C Clarke sequel collaboration with Alastair Reynolds thing? Talking of which, is the original Meeting with Medusa available on it's own/cheap anywhere? Want to read it before the sequel. Not that this is bad value at 10p per story I guess.
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Apr 29, 2016 13:17
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Really enjoying Something Coming Through by Paul McAuley. You'd think a mix of detective noir; ancient alien intelligence remnants; space colonisation; conspiracy thriller; near future standard England and sorta-western frontier imagery would be a bit of a mess, but it's very smoothly put together.
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May 18, 2016 11:19
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Dammit, a friend asked me about a book I can't remember and it's driving me nuts. Talking about urban fantasy amnesia, what the gently caress's happening with the Rook sequel? Wasn't it meant to be out last summer?
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May 19, 2016 10:27
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Hedrigall posted:New Reynolds novel info: Oh poo poo, this sounds like he's written it for me. Anyone reading Medusa Chronicles? Out yesterday in UK.
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May 20, 2016 14:47
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blue squares posted:I know this question gets asked a lot around the internet, but I would love another fantasy/sci-fi (especially SF!) series that has these elements from Game of Thrones: no real single main character, no character safe from death/extreme misfortune, and (slightly less important) lots of political scheming/maneuvering Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald is the story of warring corporate family dynasties on the Moon. I believe there's talk of a TV show, and every single article will call it GoT in Space.
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Jun 3, 2016 13:02
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Finished Baxter and Reynolds' Medusa Chronicles. It starts off a bit slow and uninteresting, and barely touches on Clarke's original story, to the point where I was starting to wonder what the point of writing it as a sequel was, if all they wanted was to explore the relationship between humans and the machine intelligences they create over the next millennia or so. But the events and setting of the short story do come into play and things start to pick up from there on, with the scope and imagination expanding exponentially from there. I'd definitely recommend reading the original and this as one story. I haven't actually read any Baxter before, so can only compare it to Reynolds' stuff. It evokes a lot of his usual themes, with one scene in particular standing out as a classic Reynolds uneasy, kinda-horrific, yet kinda-wonderous trip Basically Diamond Dogs to the absolute, ridiculous extreme.
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Jun 14, 2016 14:46
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Ugly In The Morning posted:I had no idea this was a thing, and now I'm excited. I did not know that. So R.K. Morgan wrote Crysis 2, the game, and Peter Watts wrote the novelisation? Huh. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Jun 17, 2016 |
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Jun 17, 2016 12:49
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Ninefox Gambit is pretty drat good, if a bit mental after throwing you in at the deep end. Do you end with a good grasp of how this calendrical system works exactly? Coming up to halfway and it's pretty out there.
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Jun 27, 2016 15:12
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MockingQuantum posted:Okay, I'll tough it out. It's not as though it's like pulling teeth to get through, I think I just expected something much more like The Scar. In general, the consensus among my friends who have read both is that I would have enjoyed it much more if I had read PSS first. Oh well! I think it's true that if you're not expecting the narrative flow of The Scar, then it's easier to just sit back and enjoy the trip around the city in PSS for what it is, and if PSS is your first look at Bas Lag, then the original feel of the place masks the plodding somewhat. That said, it definitely picks up in the second half, so keep at it. If you're at 50%, I don't think you've even seen any Weaver antics yet.
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Jul 16, 2016 11:34
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Kestral posted:Someone spoil me - in a limited way - on Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora. I'm just over halfway through a book that was sold to me as a pessimistic take on extrasolar colonization, and it seems clear that isn't what the book is about at all. I've read more than enough about balancing the resources of the ship and its failing systems on the voyage to Tau Ceti, and the politics of a generation ship - I have no interest at all in spending the rest of the novel reading about those same things, but in reverse, especially when the characters are paper-thin and seen from such a remote vantage that I really couldn't care less about any of them except Ship. So, would someone mind telling me whether they actually end up turning the ship around and heading back to Earth? Because if that's the case I'll put it down here and look for something else. To further expand, they don't turn the ship around until after they have a botched shot at colonisation, so you do see that if that's what you're after..
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Jul 26, 2016 22:26
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