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after war and peace ive went on a strugatsky brothers kick. i read the doomed city and roadside picnic. both are really good and i like how they dont waste time giving long explanations of the world, it just exists and here are the characters and the challenges they face. roadside picnic was really good. ive seen tarkovskys movie a few times and played the games and always thought the games were good but they really missed the point of the book.
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Mar 23, 2024 03:30
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I WAS trying Quo Vadis, but am thinking of giving it up, despite it having a pretty good research base into Nero-era Rome, because it is too much if a 'just-so' story. It ain't no I, Claudius.
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Mar 23, 2024 06:17
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kinda broke my heart when Murphy died in the last Dresden book
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Mar 23, 2024 06:25
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Mumpy Puffinz posted:kinda broke my heart when Murphy died in the last Dresden book  if i hadnt just read that last week I'd be pissed right now.also that sucked poo poo, like the entire book. what a stupid way for that character to go. he burned 16 books worth of good will with that dumpster fire of a book.
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Mar 23, 2024 06:32
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Moral: never read a series more than seven books long
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Mar 23, 2024 06:38
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Bottom Liner posted:
what a loving peice of poo poo! Awful peice of poo poo! I'm still pissed about it!
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Mar 23, 2024 06:40
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She better come back!
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Mar 23, 2024 06:42
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Captain Hygiene posted:Moral: never read a series more than seven books long Point taken, but also they're pulpy comic level stuff, takes 3-5 of them to equal a "real" read. Mumpy Puffinz posted:She better come back! Oh god, that would be even worse.
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Mar 23, 2024 06:42
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Captain Hygiene posted:Moral: never read a series more than seven books long No lie cross heart the last 7-9 books of The Expanse series are the best. LOVE THEM. I dig the whole series of course but then they end with this????
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Mar 23, 2024 06:45
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Bottom Liner posted:Point taken, but also they're pulpy comic level stuff, takes 3-5 of them to equal a "real" read. Yeah, she is dead. Would be loving wild if he married that succubus
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Mar 23, 2024 06:46
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redshirt posted:No lie cross heart the last 7-9 books of The Expanse series are the best. LOVE THEM. I dig the whole series of course but then they end with this???? I liked that series a lot the first time around, but I was rereading it last year, and it felt like it sagged enough in the middle that it should've been tightened up into two shorter related story sequences. It's late and I'm tired enough now that I can't remember my specific complaints, but I'm confident enough to sleep on my assessment 
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Mar 23, 2024 06:58
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Captain Hygiene posted:I liked that series a lot the first time around, but I was rereading it last year, and it felt like it sagged enough in the middle that it should've been tightened up into two shorter related story sequences. The middle is TOTALLY weak.
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Mar 23, 2024 07:00
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That's also what kind of slapped me was the series had lost my attention.
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Mar 23, 2024 07:00
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TK8325 posted:after war and peace ive went on a strugatsky brothers kick. i read the doomed city and roadside picnic. both are really good and i like how they dont waste time giving long explanations of the world, it just exists and here are the characters and the challenges they face. roadside picnic was really good. ive seen tarkovskys movie a few times and played the games and always thought the games were good but they really missed the point of the book. These guys sound interesting, I've never heard of them before but I've enjoyed the Eastern bloc sci Fi I've read. Anyone ever read Stanisław Lem? I read memoirs found in a bathtub over a decade ago and I think it would be worth revisiting.
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Mar 23, 2024 14:36
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I'm reading the 1990s sci-fi book series "Exordium" and it's as close to Game of Thrones in space as I think I've seen yet. a whole lot of dead people, also some torture, pretty GRITTY stuff I tell you what
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Mar 23, 2024 15:00
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I'm reading 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, by Jane Ziegelman. The title tells a lot of what it's about; "edible" is there because she goes in detail into what the immigrants ate in their home countries and how they adapted those tastes and rituals to what was available in their new country, including contemporaneous recipes. She also points out how in many cases the reason they were leaving the old country was because there was NOTHING for them to eat, and the casual abundance of everything in America was stunning, and the abundance was adapted into their new rituals here. The five families came from different places to all live in the same building at different times, and it addressed how they made space for themselves in the New World and the specific part of New York they lived in, the Lower East Side which is very different now than it was then. The building they lived in is still there, and is now The Tenement Museum, so it's possible to walk through the spaces they inhabited. I haven't visited it for about 10 years, it would be interesting to see it after reading the book. My memory was that it was impossibly dark and cramped, but the book describes how much better it was than where they came from, or how other people here had to live. I'm enjoying it. Earlier in the thread, someone talked about "Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi", and that sounded good so I found a used one and ordered it. I'm Zoom buddies with a guy in Delhi and he's taken us for walking tours of his neighborhood. Looking forward to reading it, thanks! This is a good thread, fun to hear what people are reading. Liked hearing James Joyce's voice, too, and the way he said the words made clearer what he was writing. Lots of puns and homonyms. I've never tried, because it seemed too strenuous, and I have a lazy streak at least.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:13
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I recently read The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph by Jack Vance. Its eight short sci fi fantasy detective storis over a breezy 170 pages. Pretty fun and diverse alien and alien human iteraction from the late 1940s early 1950s.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:52
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now its time for american true crime. specifically in cold blood. good book so far, but i have to stop myself reading it as truman capote as played by philip seymour hoffman.
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Mar 25, 2024 11:27
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Try out the John Douglas books next. Dude who created the FBI criminal profiling system.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:13
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Doctor J Off posted:These guys sound interesting, I've never heard of them before but I've enjoyed the Eastern bloc sci Fi I've read. Anyone ever read Stanisław Lem? I read memoirs found in a bathtub over a decade ago and I think it would be worth revisiting. I read Solaris a few years after a russian friend gifted it to me for my bday. I really enjoyed it, it felt like science fiction directed towards actual scientists. Although I've never met a psychologist who understood maths as well as the main character in that book seemed to.
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Mar 25, 2024 14:00
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I'm reading this book called Nimitz Class by Patrick Robinson, who is apparently the ghost writer of Lone Survivor. I've had it in my library since I was a teenager, so I know I must have read it, but I don't remember a thing about it. I'm halfway through it, and it SUUUUUUCKS. A lot of, and I mean a LOT, of ARE TROOPS worship, a lot of THOSE DUMB LIBERAL MEDIA FUCKFACES and Manly Men Midwestern Cowboy Rancher Republican poo poo. Like, you know this dude knows exactly what Bush dick tastes like. Plus all the western civilization is the right one and the middle east is a lawless toilet. It's just dumb. I read a few Tom Clancy books when I was a kid, now I'm reluctant to revisit them, even though I've been wanting to reread Red October for a while. I make bad life choices.
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Mar 29, 2024 16:01
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I read The Fold at this thread’s recommendation good light sci fi romp, wouldn’t mind more in that universe if the author had some more in mind
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Mar 29, 2024 16:12
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In Blue Mars updates, the book actually got vaguely interesting as it goes into further colonization of the solar system. And specifically some of the funky cultures and environments out there. A train city. A basically 3d habitat. Etc.
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Mar 29, 2024 16:15
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Narzack posted:I'm reading this book called Nimitz Class by Patrick Robinson, who is apparently the ghost writer of Lone Survivor. I've had it in my library since I was a teenager, so I know I must have read it, but I don't remember a thing about it. I'm halfway through it, and it SUUUUUUCKS. A lot of, and I mean a LOT, of ARE TROOPS worship, a lot of THOSE DUMB LIBERAL MEDIA FUCKFACES and Manly Men Midwestern Cowboy Rancher Republican poo poo. Like, you know this dude knows exactly what Bush dick tastes like. Plus all the western civilization is the right one and the middle east is a lawless toilet. It's just dumb. I read a few Tom Clancy books when I was a kid, now I'm reluctant to revisit them, even though I've been wanting to reread Red October for a while. Is Bush dick what you get when two or more bros go a-campin’ in the woods for a few nights?
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Mar 29, 2024 16:28
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redshirt posted:In Blue Mars updates, the book actually got vaguely interesting as it goes into further colonization of the solar system. And specifically some of the funky cultures and environments out there. A train city. A basically 3d habitat. Etc. I’m sold, putting a library hold on it now. E: ah, the first book is Red Mars. madmatt112 fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Mar 29, 2024 |
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Mar 29, 2024 16:29
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madmatt112 posted:Is Bush dick what you get when two or more bros go a-campin’ in the woods for a few nights? And one of the dicks 'accidentally' shoots someone.
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Mar 29, 2024 16:31
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Narzack posted:And one of the dicks 'accidentally' shoots someone.
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Mar 29, 2024 16:44
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madmatt112 posted:I’m sold, putting a library hold on it now. Yeah, Red, Green, Blue. But brother, it's a big commitment and I'm not sure it's worth it. First book is the best and good enough on its own though.
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Mar 29, 2024 16:48
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Started Clive Barker's Weaveworld for the first time.
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Mar 29, 2024 22:02
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I'm two thirds of the way through The Three Body Problem and...it loving sucks. It's so boring. I feel like the author crams in a bunch of technical bullshit to cover up a mediocre story. I don't loving care about the wavelength size of the red coast dish. If I wanted a technical journal I'd read PLOS One. Unless it picks up I don't think I'm gonna finish the trilogy.
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Apr 4, 2024 03:17
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TK8325 posted:I'm two thirds of the way through The Three Body Problem and...it loving sucks. It's so boring. I feel like the author crams in a bunch of technical bullshit to cover up a mediocre story. I don't loving care about the wavelength size of the red coast dish. If I wanted a technical journal I'd read PLOS One. Unless it picks up I don't think I'm gonna finish the trilogy. The books suck poo poo. The characters are thin as poo poo and uninteresting, the women are horribly written even by SF standards. The dude has a really creative mind when it comes to technological sci-fi concepts but his gender politics and understanding is is straight up just "HARD TIMES STRONG MAN EASY TIMES SOFT MAN" bullshit and it only becomes more emphasized as the series goes on, enjoy reading like, pages upon pages on how effete the future men are and how the one protag from the past could barely tell them apart from women. Incredible stuff. Those books are such overrated dogshit. Sci-fi straight up isn't interesting anymore unless the author's comprehension of social sciences is just as interesting as the more superficial tech poo poo. Authors in the 60s had a flimsy excuse, but that poo poo came out in like the mid-00s and it reads like some Heinlein rear end dookie. I read the Xenogenesis books right after those ones and they were a million times better and actually delved into facets of the human psyche, gender, and genetics in a way that was compelling rather than someone just writing out cool ideas they had about future tech while taking a poo poo.
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Apr 4, 2024 03:44
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Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:The books suck poo poo. The characters are thin as poo poo and uninteresting, the women are horribly written even by SF standards. The dude has a really creative mind when it comes to technological sci-fi concepts but his gender politics and understanding is is straight up just "HARD TIMES STRONG MAN EASY TIMES SOFT MAN" bullshit and it only becomes more emphasized as the series goes on, enjoy reading like, pages upon pages on how effete the future men are and how the one protag from the past could barely tell them apart from women. Incredible stuff. The first book intrigued me enough to continue, but I gave up by the second for a lot of these reasons, the gender characterizations in particular. On the sci-fi side, for all its big ideas, I felt I was constantly getting mad at it for getting too far into magical hand-wavey technology plot shortcuts by the second book, I just stopped reading it after that. I wish I could remember more specific complaints, but it just kinda disappeared from my memory once I gave up on it.
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Apr 4, 2024 03:56
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Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:The books suck poo poo. Oh good, I'm gonna dump that book and read something else then.
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Apr 4, 2024 04:09
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May i recommendmadmatt112 posted:E: ah, the first book is Red Mars. -for a trilogy about life on the new frontier of SPACE! Only with Tolkien-tier scenery descriptions, hundreds of pages of the economics of environmentalism and vice versa, and constant weird digressions into psychology, engineering, politics, orbital mechanics, and the practise of science as the definition of Utopia. In context, there is something hilarious about the line "stay together, don't collide with anyone, don’t change direction too fast"
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Apr 4, 2024 05:03
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TK8325 posted:I'm two thirds of the way through The Three Body Problem and...it loving sucks. It's so boring. I feel like the author crams in a bunch of technical bullshit to cover up a mediocre story. I don't loving care about the wavelength size of the red coast dish. If I wanted a technical journal I'd read PLOS One. Unless it picks up I don't think I'm gonna finish the trilogy. The third book is so much worse than the first two. Abandon them now. I found a collection of The Best American Short Stories 1993 that my dad bought for me. He inscribed the inside "to Bighead, one of the best short readers of 1993."  And I am reminded that John Updike starts paragraphs with the word "And."
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Apr 4, 2024 05:06
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I'll give the Mars trilogy another try. I bailed in the middle of Red Mars after it seemed like all they did was have space orgies.
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Apr 4, 2024 05:36
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Well now I’m doubly excited to read it 
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Apr 4, 2024 14:01
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TK8325 posted:I'll give the Mars trilogy another try. I bailed in the middle of Red Mars after it seemed like all they did was have space orgies. I wash my hands of any responsibilities. I've given my warning. As I am about 100 pages left to finish the 3rd book in the series (it somehow got interesting at the end!). I am a turbo nerd on this subject, so I find the trilogy interesting, while also strongly feeling they are not very good books. They don't suffer from the sexism or racism of other sci fi, that's for sure. But as mentioned above, these are less books and more the authors in depth exploration at terraforming. There's little in the way of characterization, drama, plot, etc. But if you're looking for DETAILED and IN DEPTH descriptions of future Martian geology and flora and fauna, this is the trilogy for you. While reading these books, the author never explains, really, why all this is happening. It's kinda maddening. Why, for instance, did Earth megacorps spend trillions of dollars to colonize Mars with no hope of profits for many many many decades? Does that seem like something a megacorp would do?
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Apr 4, 2024 14:12
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If you're in to hard scifi, I recommend my very favorite science fiction authors, Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds.
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Apr 4, 2024 14:34
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Baxter wrote The Long Earth with Terry Pratchett. I really enjoyed it back in my 20s. An imaginative romp through alternate worlds, and IIRC a bitchin’ eco-climax that really made me want to read the next one to find out how they wrote the aftermath. It’s fun when the two authors are so different, almost every chapter is quite clearly written by one or the other.
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Apr 4, 2024 16:01
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