Science Fiction

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Discussion

plasticpig

12,932 posts

240 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
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Drawweight said:
Is it just me that would prefer a stand alone book rather than a series?

I’ve just read The Painted Man by Peter V Brett which enjoyed. I just came upon it by chance and read it and it wasn’t till the end that I realised there were 4 more books.

There’s just something that holds me back from reading a series of books that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe it’s just that I have a short attention span.

I’ve tried with several series’s and I just run out of steam part way through.

So if anyone can recommend some stand alone science fiction that’d be great.
As mentioned a lot of classic ScFi is stand alone but for more modern stuff:

Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Fallen Dragon. Perter F Hamilton
The Octagonal Raven, L.E. Modesitt Jr.



Clockwork Cupcake

77,916 posts

287 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
plasticpig said:
As mentioned a lot of classic ScFi is stand alone but for more modern stuff:

Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Fallen Dragon. Perter F Hamilton
The Octagonal Raven, L.E. Modesitt Jr.
This is going to make you feel old, but Snow Crash was published almost 30 years ago. paperbag

Still a great book, and pretty much invented the Metaverse. Linden Lab deny that Second Life was modelled on it, but we all know it was.

In keeping with a lot of Neal Stephenson's work, it ends rather abruptly with a rather too convenient Deus ex machina, which disappoints. But otherwise is a great book.

hairykrishna

13,983 posts

218 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
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I enjoyed the new Stephenson, Termination Shock. My favourite of his is still Anathem.



Clockwork Cupcake

77,916 posts

287 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
hairykrishna said:
I enjoyed the new Stephenson, Termination Shock. My favourite of his is still Anathem.
Interesting. I actually own Anathem in paperback but have never read it due to the crushing disappointment of Seveneves. So it has sat on the bookshelf, unread, ever since.

edit: I should add that I have read most of Neal Stephenson's books, including Cryptonomicon. But Seveneves was an absolute low point for me.


Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Tuesday 18th January 17:12

jimmyjimjim

7,768 posts

253 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
Drawweight said:
Is it just me that would prefer a stand alone book rather than a series?

I’ve just read The Painted Man by Peter V Brett which enjoyed. I just came upon it by chance and read it and it wasn’t till the end that I realised there were 4 more books.

There’s just something that holds me back from reading a series of books that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe it’s just that I have a short attention span.

I’ve tried with several series’s and I just run out of steam part way through.

So if anyone can recommend some stand alone science fiction that’d be great.
Oddly enough, I enjoyed that book, but can't face the rest of the series.

havoc

31,779 posts

250 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
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Anathem is worthwhile.

I agree above that he has a problem with endings, but the level of detail and immersion in the topic in his novels (for me at least), is wonderful stuff. Cryptonomicon is also good.


I'm currently reading this...successor to Wool...which I read about 3 years ago so have forgotten a few details which may be being cross-referenced here or useful to know.


Dystopian post-apocalypse stuff (without the zombies...well, not visible anthropomorphic ones anyway), but all the more human because of it.

Clockwork Cupcake

77,916 posts

287 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
havoc said:
Anathem is worthwhile.

I agree above that he has a problem with endings, but the level of detail and immersion in the topic in his novels (for me at least), is wonderful stuff. Cryptonomicon is also good.
Yes, I enjoyed Cryptonomicon.

My biggest issue with Seveneves is he goes into excruciating and excessive detail on things that don't matter and glosses over stuff that he can't be arsed to flesh out. Which includes character development. And there is also a whole load of fail with regards to "show, don't tell" (as in, he tells). It's by far his laziest and most self-indulgent book and it has rather put me off him, despite having read most of his previous works.

Maybe I will give Anathem a go, though.




Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Tuesday 18th January 17:46

hairykrishna

13,983 posts

218 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Interesting. I actually own Anathem in paperback but have never read it due to the crushing disappointment of Seveneves. So it has sat on the bookshelf, unread, ever since.

edit: I should add that I have read most of Neal Stephenson's books, including Cryptonomicon. But Seveneves was an absolute low point for me.
Seveneves is...not my favourite. I thought the second half could have been a decent book on its own but it ends just as it's getting interesting. I've read most of his books, I think Fall; or, Dodge in Hell is my least favourite.

Clockwork Cupcake

77,916 posts

287 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
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hairykrishna said:
Seveneves is...not my favourite.
Diplomatic hehe

hairykrishna said:
I thought the second half could have been a decent book on its own but it ends just as it's getting interesting.
I'd say more like last third than 2nd half. Clearly an extended setup for a sequel. It would have been far better done as totally standalone and cold, with the revelation that it was the Earth of Seveneves. Kind of like the reveal in the Asimov books that the Robots books and the Foundation books are in the same universe.

hairykrishna said:
I've read most of his books, I think Fall; or, Dodge in Hell is my least favourite.
Fortunately I have not read those. Sounds like I dodged a bullet. smile



Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Tuesday 18th January 19:17

hairykrishna

13,983 posts

218 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Fortunately I have not read those. Sounds like I dodged a bullet. smile



Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Tuesday 18th January 19:17
It's just the one book. It has a few of the same characters as Reamde, which was excellent, making it doubly annoying.


Clockwork Cupcake

77,916 posts

287 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
hairykrishna said:
It's just the one book. It has a few of the same characters as Reamde, which was excellent, making it doubly annoying.
Oh! paperbag

Well, I have just called up his bibliography and I have read the following:

  • Zodiac (1988)
  • Snow Crash (1992)
  • The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995)
  • Cryptonomicon (1999)
  • Quicksilver (2003), volume I: The Baroque Cycle
  • The Confusion (2004), volume II: The Baroque Cycle
  • Seveneves (2015)
Plus, owned but never read:
  • The System of the World (2004), volume III: The Baroque Cycle
  • Anathem (2008)
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson#Nove...

So it looks like I have read quite a few of his novels.

I didn't really get on with The Baroque Cycle

I thought that "The Diamond Age" was a lovely neo-Steampunk novel that had some clear links with Snow Crash, and also with William Gibson's "The Difference Engine".



Baron Greenback

7,414 posts

165 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
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Diamond age and Snow Crash are my favourite

sociopath

3,433 posts

81 months

Tuesday 18th January 2022
quotequote all
jimmyjimjim said:
Drawweight said:
Is it just me that would prefer a stand alone book rather than a series?

I’ve just read The Painted Man by Peter V Brett which enjoyed. I just came upon it by chance and read it and it wasn’t till the end that I realised there were 4 more books.

There’s just something that holds me back from reading a series of books that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe it’s just that I have a short attention span.

I’ve tried with several series’s and I just run out of steam part way through.

So if anyone can recommend some stand alone science fiction that’d be great.
Oddly enough, I enjoyed that book, but can't face the rest of the series.
Its good, but a slog to get through book 5.



havoc

31,779 posts

250 months

Wednesday 19th January 2022
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
It would have been far better done as totally standalone and cold, with the revelation that it was the Earth of Seveneves. Kind of like the reveal in the Asimov books that the Robots books and the Foundation books are in the same universe.
yes

On the spoiler topic, I remember as a kid reading Foundation & Earth, and the sheer joy at putting it all together, at the reveal by R. Daneel...almost certainly unplanned when the original series was written 70 7ears ago, so not a Deus Ex ending...more a very neat homage to a beloved character

xeny

4,989 posts

93 months

Wednesday 19th January 2022
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Oh! paperbag

Well, I have just called up his bibliography and I have read the following:

  • Zodiac (1988)
  • Snow Crash (1992)
  • The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995)
  • Cryptonomicon (1999)
  • Quicksilver (2003), volume I: The Baroque Cycle
  • The Confusion (2004), volume II: The Baroque Cycle
  • Seveneves (2015)
Plus, owned but never read:
  • The System of the World (2004), volume III: The Baroque Cycle
  • Anathem (2008)
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson#Nove...

So it looks like I have read quite a few of his novels.

I didn't really get on with The Baroque Cycle

I thought that "The Diamond Age" was a lovely neo-Steampunk novel that had some clear links with Snow Crash, and also with William Gibson's "The Difference Engine".
I've read Quicksilver and the first half of The Confusion before deciding it was too long for not enough enjoyment. The initial premise of Seveneves is so broken from a Physics PoV I can't read beyond that point (same problem with Red Mars).

Snow Crash for me was part of early adulthood, and although it is a while now since I read it, :The Big U: reminds me far too much of university. in both good and bad ways. Zodiac is a lot of fun and blissfully short, I've re-read it several times.

Anathem has a better enjoyment length ratio than the Baroque cycle books, but isn't as casual a read as Snow Crash. Of his other works it perhaps most closely resembles Cryptonomicon in character?

hairykrishna

13,983 posts

218 months

Wednesday 19th January 2022
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I've tried to start the baroque cycle a few times and struggled. I've read all his other stuff.

Clockwork Cupcake

77,916 posts

287 months

Wednesday 19th January 2022
quotequote all
hairykrishna said:
I've tried to start the baroque cycle a few times and struggled. I've read all his other stuff.
In fairness, it is more fantasy than Sci-Fi because it is set in the past.

There were some interesting concepts but it just didn't capture me. So, yes, I am totally with you there.

By contrast, I found Iain "no M" Banks' fiction very accessible. The Wasp Factory (his first novel) is still amazing.

One author whose fantasy offerings I have not explored is Adrian Tchaikovsky. I love his sci-fi but I am wary of trying his fantasy, not least due to being stung by Neal Stephenson's aforementioned Baroque Cycle.

Clockwork Cupcake

77,916 posts

287 months

Wednesday 19th January 2022
quotequote all
xeny said:
The initial premise of Seveneves is so broken from a Physics PoV I can't read beyond that point (same problem with Red Mars).
Some of it broken, and some of it just too much excruciating detail. I have a degree in Applied Physics (although I freely admit that it was a long time ago and I have probably forgotten so much of it that I could barely pass Physics O-level now) and even I found it too much detail. And, worse, it was simply unnecessary detail. To the detriment of the rest of the book.

I have posted my review of it a couple of times on the thread so I won't bore everyone with yet another full repost, but this snippet rather sums up Seveneves for me:

"[it is] like writing The Great Escape concentrating most of the effort on describing the tunnel digging, load calculations of the tunnel props, how the lighting was devised, construction of the digging implements, and then having half a page of dialogue where one guard mentions to another in passing that there was a breakout but that many prisoners have been recaptured or shot, and a chap on a motorbike had a pretty cool chase but was ultimately caught. And then a German Structural Engineer arrives and the next few chapters describe his admiration of the tunnel."

I shall try to give it a rest now. Sorry. paperbag




Nimby

5,169 posts

165 months

Wednesday 19th January 2022
quotequote all
havoc said:
Anathem is worthwhile.

I agree above that he has a problem with endings, but the level of detail and immersion in the topic in his novels (for me at least), is wonderful stuff. Cryptonomicon is also good.


I'm currently reading this...successor to Wool...which I read about 3 years ago so have forgotten a few details which may be being cross-referenced here or useful to know.


Dystopian post-apocalypse stuff (without the zombies...well, not visible anthropomorphic ones anyway), but all the more human because of it.
I'm currently half-way through "Dust" - the third one. Just as bleak ...

hairykrishna

13,983 posts

218 months

Wednesday 19th January 2022
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
One author whose fantasy offerings I have not explored is Adrian Tchaikovsky. I love his sci-fi but I am wary of trying his fantasy, not least due to being stung by Neal Stephenson's aforementioned Baroque Cycle.
I was the same, not least because I'm not a big reader of Fantasy in general. After I'd read all of his Sci-Fi I ended up reading and enjoying the whole of his Shadows of the Apt series though.