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I've started reading the revelation space series. Does the author ever expand on the story arch of the first book? I'm midway the second one but feel left out a bit after that sort-of-cliffhanger of the first one. Reading the wiki synopsis it seems the whole series is only loosely connected?
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Jul 6, 2020 20:22
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 15:01 |
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I just finished the Revelation Space series and I'm triply impressed by Reynolds' world building. But the ending left me a bit hanging. Is there a book of him that maybe provides some closure? Wiki tells me Inhibitor Phase is the natural sequel, but the cover reads more like a standalone novel like Chasm City. A short scour of the net recommends Galactic North but I'm a bit afraid of spoilering myself by checking the synopsys. Is this the go to book to get some sense of connecting loose ties and some semblence of an ending?
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Jun 7, 2022 22:52
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I've been wanting to delve into the Dune universe but I'm unsure of where to start. It would make sense to just follow the wikipedia order and start with Dune (1965). However a friend of mine recommended me to start with the prehistory to the Dune books, but I can't figure out exactly where that starts and ends. Any recommendation? Mikojan fucked around with this message at 09:57 on May 24, 2023 |
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May 24, 2023 09:49
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Good! I'll start with Dune and see how far I get. I have a high pain threshold having read almost all WH30k heresy novels
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May 24, 2023 10:11
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I'm on a space opera binge lately and I'm curious if there are any obvious suggestions. Things I've read: Revelation space series, Expanse series, The Foundation, Red rising series and currently reading Dune. Would highly appreciate recommendations that deal with large scale space things! Preferably storylines that span multiple books.
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Mar 18, 2024 11:51
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zoux posted:I watched Dune 2 this weekend and it got me thinking about various ways that sci-fi authors de-tech their universes to get around things like the singularity/magic-level tech and increase human involvement. Herbert did it with the Butlerian Jihad, Reynolds introduced the melding plague, and I can recall an author (Ken MacLeod?) who called nanotech, strong AI, genetic engineering, and one other thing I can't remember as the "four failed promises", basically things that we thought we would develop but never could. A lot of SF literature has some element of that yea. Hell even Warhammer 40k has this with the AI wars around "the age of strife" I think Asimov's Foundation has something with robots being outlawed as well? In regards to Rvelation space, even before the melding plague took place some event caused high functioning AI to be prohibited. It's mentioned somewhere early in the first book if I remember right.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:13
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eighty-four merc posted:Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained are sick, I just read those recently. I haven’t read the next set of books in the series, but there’s more if you’re into it. Checking out the hamilton chap. Seems like he wrote a trilorgy called 'the Void'. Is that one worth picking up as well?
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Mar 18, 2024 19:00
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Jedit posted:It does - or more accurately, in the original trilogy there aren't any robots. The extended canon tying it into many of his other works is that the first human colonists, the Spacers, established fifty lightly populated worlds where their needs were seen to by robots while Earth was prevented from expanding further. Earth denizens were also forbidden to visit Spacer worlds to protect the Spacers from disease (they hadn't brought any with them, so their immune systems were depressed). As a reaction Earth outlawed robots, mostly because they were a Spacer thing but also to keep Spacers off Earth because they couldn't function without them. When Earthers were finally allowed to colonise as well, they spread massively and as the Spacers had feared, their own group of worlds quickly became insignificant because they no longer had the urge to expand and compete. Combined with their long lives leading to a low birth rate, they eventually died out. Meanwhile, the new worlds from Earth grew into what later became the Galactic Empire. Earth itself had been destroyed by a Spacer reprisal plot that led to the gradual irradiation of the crust and as the Empire formed, was forgotten as the Emperors decided that their capital of Trantor should be considered the centre of the universe and didn't want memories of the lost home world or the Spacer colonies detracting from it. Dang, thanks for that. Maybe I'll get deeper into the foundation universe. For now I ordered: - house of suns - inhibition phase - Hyperion - Pandora's star + Judas unchained That, plus the 6 Dune books coming in should keep me occupied for a bit
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Mar 18, 2024 19:13
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MockingQuantum posted:I hope you're starting Dune at the very start of the chronology with Dune: The Butlerian Jihad I was told to avoid the tangential books at all cost because of the lousy writing, should I reconsider? If so, do I skip anything in the chronology? Also, I've seen some lore videos on the Dune background, so I have at least some notion of the jihad and the various factions. Mikojan fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 19:17
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MockingQuantum posted:Though I would say if you finish Dune and are on the fence about continuing, it's probably worth reading Messiah of Dune. It's honestly kind of the back quarter of Dune, moreso than a standalone novel, so it presents a lot of consequences of what happens in the first book that are pretty important. If you end up hating the first book I'm not sure it'd change your mind, though. The movie adaptation has charmed me so much that I'm very excited getting into the setting. On top of that I have read 60+ warhammer 40k books so I have developed some resistance to bad writing (apart from you Dan Abnett, you glorious hunk of a man) That said, I've been listening to an audiobook of the first one, while I wait for my paperbacks to arrive, and the writing is ... unique. The way Herbert deals with conversations has a bit of a weird touch to it. In some way it reads a bit like scripture for lack of a better description.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:37
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PeterWeller posted:Nah, man, the Butlerian Jihad entry in the appendix to Dune explicitly says it was "the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots," and the existential threat that Leto II sees is prescient seeker robots. Fighting against killer robots was always what the Butlerian Jihad was about. It's just Brian and KJA took that in the most boring direction they could and turned those conscious robots into Saturday morning cartoon villains that would make Megatron and Starscream blush. Maybe the confusion here is about those 'titans' aka people turning themselves into robots enslaving humanity, before they themselves get enslaved by actual AI. edit - from the dune wiki quote:During the rule of the Titans, the group relied to a lesser or greater extent on the Thinking Machines - the limited artificial intelligences present in the various networks and robots around them. While many of the Titans sought physical pleasure (usually through violence or sex), the Thinking Machines controlled the daily operations of the new empire. So basically humans enslaved other humans by transferring their own consciousness into robotics called Cymeks. The cymeks relied on AI to deal with managing their empire. The AI eventually breaks free of the Cymeks and fucks everything. The Jihad comes in to deal with the double threat of the AI and the titans. So you are both right Mikojan fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 20:53
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I got recommended Ender's Game by a friend. I checked it out and apparently it's a series as well so unsure where to start. Or if it's even worth it.
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Mar 26, 2024 08:22
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Lmao that its a book for 13 year olds and on a suggested list for the US marine corps or something
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Mar 26, 2024 10:38
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C.M. Kruger posted:It was on the USMC Commandant's list for junior enlisted Marines up until 2020 when everything was revised, Starship Troopers also got cut. They finally figured out starship troopers was a satire huh?
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Mar 26, 2024 12:11
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My Dune bookset arrived today, and even if you're not gonna read it immediatly, the covers and the set as a whole are a very fun thing to own.
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Mar 26, 2024 13:13
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So, the 3 body problem. Is it worth reading? The show had me rolling my eyes a lot with the ready player one stuff and shoehorned sentimentality related to one of the characters getting sick. However the overal setup of the plot intrigues me. I'm willing to wager a lot of stuff in the show has been added to the original story. Does the book series come to some sort of satisfying conclusion?
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Apr 26, 2024 06:52
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Ugh, I'll let it slide then, I don't want to get Silo'd again. Also, after these Dune books I'm sure my goodwill tank will be depleted for along time.
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Apr 26, 2024 07:16
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Kestral posted:If you're in the mood for Big Sci-Fi Ideas though, I'll also recommend the palate-cleanser I went to hatereading 3BP and its sequels: QNTM's Valuable Humans in Transit and Fine Structure. Absolutely wild stuff that is also reasonably well-written and wasn't authored by someone writing in the worst traditions of Golden Age SF. Thanks for that! Ordered 3 of QNTM's books: Valuable Humans / Fine structure / antimemetics
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Apr 29, 2024 09:59
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 15:01 |
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Alastair Reynolds has the coolest ideas and worldbuilding of any SF writer ive read. I'll be forever sad the revelation space series never got satisfying closure. The procession of rolling cathedrals in absolution gap had me hootin.
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May 2, 2024 17:37
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