MockingQuantum posted:

Have you read The Boy on the Bridge? I was actually kind of lukewarm on Girl for most of the book, but ended up enjoying it well enough, so I'm curious how the second book stands up.

And anybody read Fellside or Someone Like Me? I generally like, but not love, Mike Carey's books so I'm curious about them, but not enough to just dive in without a recommendation.

SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:

Does anyone have suggestions of books similar to The Lies of Locke Lamora? I'm not sure what about it, maybe it's just the heist aspect because I also liked the Great Train Robbery.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

It's one of the few you can say PLEASE DO NOT JUDGE THIS BY THE COVER because for some reason the first few covers look like some weird romance novel, when it's really not.

Ben Nevis posted:

The consequences of elf banging does seem to be a pretty big plot point.

Philthy posted:

Picked up the first two Murderbot books. Holy moly. Both look to be about 100 pages, if that. One was softbound for $15, and the other hardcover for $16.

WTF.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Is it just me, or does it seem like all the really interesting new books are being written in SF, not fantasy?

The last new-release (non-urban) fantasy novel I can remember being genuinely excited by was either Lies of Locke Lamora or Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and both of those are like fifteen years old now. It feels like since Gaiman went commercial and Pratchett got formulaic there's just not much new happening in the genre.

In contrast with SF every few years something I hadn't expected seems to take me by surprise, like Murderbot.

freebooter posted:

people who listen to podcasts at double speed.

Hiro Protagonist posted:

I got half way through the first murderbot novella and, despite how short it is, I don't know if I'm going to finish it. It feels like the entire thing is just "look at how QUIRKY the main character is!"

Philthy posted:

Amazon AI just sent me a $5 gift certificate to buy Heretics of Dune that expires in 7 days because it noticed I stopped reading the series at God Emperor.

Nice try but I'm not falling for it!!!

muscles like this! posted:

Also started reading Blake Crouch's Recursion and I'm digging it. It is a lot like Dark Matter where the story starts at a slow burn but by halfway it has started hurtling down the tracks.

General Battuta posted:

my bony fealty posted:

When I read Illuminatus I recall Hagbard Celine coming off as a "not someone to emulate" type but maybe I was just projecting my own beliefs

It's a fun read regardless and not just straight up Rand-style right wing apologetics at least!

Alec Eiffel posted:

Are there any worthwhile Star Wars books outside the Thrawn Trilogy? I'm looking for some light reading right now.

my bony fealty posted:

I dunno, recommend me good climate change fiction please? I'll probably finish this but I had hoped to like it a lot more

cptn_dr posted:

Take care, General B. Hope things look up soon.

quantumfoam posted:

The Tor.com and NPR scifi+ fantasy book rec's in the OP are beyond stale. Send me links to anything newer and I'll update the OP.

Had no idea that kindofbook.com + https://www.bookbub.com/ existed, will be add them to OP too.

Jedit posted:

Turtledove wrote a seven book series that was basically "what if both World Wars, but we're the Nazis and we're exterminating blacks?" He doesn't do nuance.

pradmer posted:

First three books from the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer - $0.99 each
Off to Be the Wizard - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EF8Z32I/
Spell or High Water - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVF7OJM/
An Unwelcome Quest - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MRADM1K/

Looks like lighthearted humor fantasy. Usually I'd assume they're probably terrible, but other mentions on SA are surprisingly positive.

Black Griffon posted:

I also adore big dumb object stories. What's your favorite (and everyone else's too)?

90s Cringe Rock posted:

That's... not obvious. At all. Like, all of them?

Proteus Jones posted:

Childhood's End is such a bitter-sweet, beautiful book full of despair and hope.

Please read it if you haven't yet.

biracial bear for uncut posted:

Dennis Taylor's "Bobiverse" books are fun distractions if you don't care about the premise being a lot more serious than the execution.

The series is basically "What if Von Neumann Probe, but with a (smartass) human intelligence driving it?"

MockingQuantum posted:

He also wrote the most boomer-brained screed about how Greta Thunberg was a petulant child with not a single shred of real science after she addressed the UN, and how worthless he thought all the left-leaning-adults (lol what an oxymoron!!!!) were for "genuflecting" to her adolescent temper tantrum over how we're destroying the planet. Dude is a full-on rear end in a top hat.

quantumfoam posted:

Today would have been Harry Harrison's 95th birthday. RIP creator of the 'Soylent Green is people' meme.
Most of his work aged pretty well which is rare for scifi.

uber_stoat posted:

one of the protagonists of Oath of Fealty is a genius engineer (of course) named Tony Rand (of course). his catch phrase: "think of it as evolution in action."

pradmer posted:

Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1) by James SA Corey - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y171G/

Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) by Richard K Morgan - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFMZ2/

The Girl with All the Gifts by MR Carey - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO7FLFG/

The Last Wish (Witcher) by Andrzej Sapkowski - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010SIPT4/

The Return of the King (Lord of the Rings #3) by JRR Tolkien - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007978P18/

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XB49BG4/

TheAardvark posted:

Started Doomsday Book. Not really a spoiler (flavor about a historical event in the book's past) but I had to post this:

"I'm not used to having my civil liberties taken away like this. In America, nobody would dream of telling you where you can or can't go."
And over thirty million Americans died during the Pandemic as a result of that sort of thinking, he thought.

From 1992. also the pandemic seems to have taken place in the late 2010s/early 20s LOL

quantumfoam posted:

It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask.


Should I continue posting SFL-Archives summaries in this thread? I've gotten zero feedback on them and why keep mentioning poo poo no-one cares about?

StrixNebulosa posted:

A friend asked me for sci-fi/fantasy books that tended feminist and were mostly happy, and she'd just finished Gideon the Ninth, so here's what I came up with in case anyone else wants my recs:

Okay here is a starter book rec set from me, it covers several genres and is mostly happy, and usually feminist:

- Survival by Julie E Czerneda. First of a trilogy, very Star Trek in feel. A salmon researcher is ANGRY to be taken from studying salmon and thrown into trying to understand what's been mysteriouslly wiping out planets.

- Pride of Chanur by CJ Cherryh. Standalone, has four sequels. Is one of my favorite novels by one of my favorite authors. Is about a crew of space lions who want to be left alone to do merchant stuff, but a human stows away in their cargo and it becomes a race to keep him out of enemy hands while figuring out what to do with him. Lots of cultural stuff!

- To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts. Standalone chonk. A princess has gone missing on the night of the betrothal wedding, and a guardsman is tapped to find her. The first half of the book is great political/thriller-esque stuff as he tries to find out where she's gone and all the political stuff surrounding it, then the self half of it is a car chase but on horses. Great horses. Great action sequences. It's also one of the only books I've read where the main dude is actually crippled and has to deal with permanent pain and it's not magicked away or anything.

- Banner of Souls by Liz Williams. Deeply weird sci-fi fantasy about a Martian warrior-lady who has to find a girl and protect her. Very visual, very weird, I liked it a lot.

- This Alien Shore by CS Friedman. Sci-fi, autism, cyberpunk. I need to reread this but it was formative for a teen me.

- Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn, The only UF on this list (tho I'm waffling on Chronicles of Elantra), and treat it as a standalone, the first is the best. It's about coping when your life has been changed utterly, it's about escaping abusive relationships, it's about growing into yourself and becoming a radio-show host about werewolves.

Leng posted:

In the latest GRRM news, his attempts to build a castle are foiled again:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8711007/amp/Game-Thrones-author-George-R-R-Martin-wants-build-fantasy-castle-backyard.html

Those plans!

StrixNebulosa posted:

Ya know I think this goes in here too:

https://twitter.com/MikeBrooks668/status/1304347212550467585

In short, this is a novel from the alien's pov. It's about a band of space orks being violent and having fun and I cannot wait for it to drop, and if it's as much fun as I think it'll be, y'all non-Warhammer fans should check it out!

Arcsquad12 posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0vDQWMJNbE

Yes.

Laterite posted:

Heard from a friend that Terry Goodkind passed away, but am seeing nothing so far, other than a Wikipedia edit.

Terry Goodkind

"Terry Goodkind (January 11, 1948 – September 17, 2020)[1] was an American writer."

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Baru Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Cormorants of Dune.

StrixNebulosa posted:

Cradle's actually good

pseudanonymous posted:

This is a really really good book, better than the hitchhikers guide books, and for what it's worth probably the initial inspiration for American Gods. That being said don't hold Adams to account for Gaiman's sins.