What book are you reading? And what do you like about it?

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > What book are you reading? And what do you like about it?

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

kiminewt posted:

I read the Mars trilogy as a teen but was weirded out by the dirt-eating sex cult thing they had going on. Wonder if it'll go down more smoothly as an adult.

I've been reading Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson also, and luckily that has less sex in it (so far).

Ministry has some great stuff in it. That opening chapter is incredible.
I re-read the Marses this year and, yeah, the areophany people come across as, somehow, even less sympathetic on a re-read.
Have you read Aurora? It's gooooood.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2024 08:01

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 07:07

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

May i recommend

madmatt112 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"

# ¿ Apr 4, 2024 05:03

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

redshirt posted:

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?

I agree there's not much in the way of plot, but I'd disagree on the characterisation. That's almost the point of the series. Like the opening chapter of Red is from Maya's pov, with a strong focus on interpersonal dynamics, then you get Nadia's pov chapter which includes a page-long list of tools and swiftly dismisses all Maya's angst and politicking as teenage melodrama. Everyone's on the same planet but inhabit very different worlds.
But yeah there is the big question of "why are the megacorps funding this" or at least "how are the characters paying for their food and socks." I wonder if that's a result of its super early 90's publication date, back when "corporation" conjured up some vast and sprawling zaibatsu or whatever, rather than e.g. Musk or Zuckerberg, or Google slowly poisoning its own algorithms with ai garbage.

Narzack posted:

If you're in to hard scifi, I recommend my very favorite science fiction authors, Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds.

Reynolds is real good, but I'm not sure his sci fi is "hard." Dark, definitely.

madmatt112 posted:

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.

I wound up liking it less and less as it went on. It combined Pratchett's hard science with Baxter's wit and wordplay. Uhh.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2024 00:04

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