Science Fiction

[RizzoTheRat]

I'm never keen on the idea of other authors doing sequels. I once made the mistake of reading one of the Jason Bourne books by Eric Lustbader. I don't think he'd ever read any of the Robert Ludlum books.

[grumbledoak]

RizzoTheRat said:

Well it's doubled in price since I bought it but that's still a hell of a lot of reading material for the money if anyone else is thinking of giving it a go.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dune-Gateway-Collection-E...

Thank you, bought!

[br d]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

I was being deliberately ambiguous, I admit. Personally I love the Dune books, but what I was trying to convey was that when you talk Fantasy then the "must read" genre-defining book series is LotR. Similarly, for SciFi it is Dune. It's that important.

That'll do then. I will make the effort to read at least the original book, I've seen enough of your recommendations on here before Cupcake to trust your opinion. It's going to have to wait though, got a long list of stuff waiting to be processed and it's pretty exclusively the fault of this forum!

[Clockwork Cupcake]

br d said:

That'll do then. I will make the effort to read at least the original book, I've seen enough of your recommendations on here before Cupcake to trust your opinion.

*blushes* That's very nice of you to say.

[leglessAlex]

captain_cynic said:

LOTR for me was a hard series of books for me to read, very drawn out, a few very crappy chapters that were very smartly, cut from the film (such at Tom Bombadil... I'll get a lot of hate from LOTR fans for that, but he was a boring character).

I don't think you'd get a lot of hate as such, but Bombadil was an important character in a world-building sense. The connection that the Hobbit weapons have to the age of the world and the knowledge that Bombadil had about them when they came out of the Barrow is not at all important if you're making a movie, but one of those things that makes LOTR a part of a much bigger story/history.

I can't disagree about the writing though. I thought The Hobbit, aimed at kids, was a more coherent and interesting book.

[Stan the Bat]

RizzoTheRat said:

I'm never keen on the idea of other authors doing sequels. I once made the mistake of reading one of the Jason Bourne books by Eric Lustbader. I don't think he'd ever read any of the Robert Ludlum books.

I've never read a Lustbader book that was any good.

[Halmyre]

RizzoTheRat said:

I'm never keen on the idea of other authors doing sequels. I once made the mistake of reading one of the Jason Bourne books by Eric Lustbader. I don't think he'd ever read any of the Robert Ludlum books.

I struggled through the first Ludlum Bourne book and resolved never to read another Ludlum, never mind the Bourne series.

[Schmeeky]

RizzoTheRat said:

Well it's doubled in price since I bought it but that's still a hell of a lot of reading material for the money if anyone else is thinking of giving it a go.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dune-Gateway-Collection-E...

Cheers for the link, bought!

I've read Dune many times, but never any of the sequels. Just before Christmas I came across an absolutely beautiful book, the first three stories hardbound and beautifully printed and illustrated, which is almost too good to spoil by actually reading it!!

I'm in the middle of the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton atm, Dune in its entirety is next!

[Sir Snaz]

Have just finished Seveneves by Neal Stephenson .......cracking book!

[irocfan]

C2Red said:

Just finished the Wandering Earth, Cixin Lui; didn’t think that the short stories were up to much to begin with, but by the end I’d really grown to like the style, and the endings, a different view on some ordinary subjects I felt.

the film has just arrived on NetFlix

[Mannginger]

irocfan said:

the film has just arrived on NetFlix

Oh didn't realise there was a film - good info!

[C2Red]

Mannginger said:

irocfan said:

the film has just arrived on NetFlix

Oh didn't realise there was a film - good info!

Thank you, goes off to see if there are any reviews...

[irocfan]

C2Red said:

Mannginger said:

irocfan said:

the film has just arrived on NetFlix

Oh didn't realise there was a film - good info!

Thank you, goes off to see if there are any reviews...

sort of... enjoyable enough but it does seems as if the Chinese love screeching characters (which was highly annoying). Plays hard and fast with science though - makes The Core seem like a scientific masterpiece! Emphasises sacrifice of the individual for the greater good, but despite all that it is an interesting watch

[C2Red]

irocfan said:

sort of... enjoyable enough but it does seems as if the Chinese love screeching characters (which was highly annoying). Plays hard and fast with science though - makes The Core seem like a scientific masterpiece! Emphasises sacrifice of the individual for the greater good, but despite all that it is an interesting watch

Ok thanks, might wait a while then...

[JonChalk]

Schmeeky said:

I'm in the middle of the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton

Is this the first of his you've read?

If you like it, you will really need to follow it with The Chronicles of the Faller duology (?) which carries the same story on (sort of). It's not essential to follow straight on, but it may help if Void is fresh in your memory.

Hamilton and Neal Asher are just the two best British SF writers, IMHO, if you like big, long story arcs over many books. Their ability to maintain consistency and a flow is excellent.

[Sway]

I rate Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy as the best story I have ever read.

Still pick it up every year or so.

[JonChalk]

Sway said:

I rate Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy as the best story I have ever read.

Still pick it up every year or so.

Agreed, but haven't read it for a while - too many other things to read.

In truth, I don't think Hamilton's put a foot wrong in anything he's done, but I am a bit of a fanboy.

[Schmeeky]

JonChalk said:

Is this the first of his you've read?

Nope, am a massive fan of what he does - Peter F. and Ian M. are my go to guys when I want a dose of massive world building with out there tech and awesome characters.

Sway said:

I rate Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy as the best story I have ever read.

Still pick it up every year or so.

Yup. This. My copies are held together with duct tape. An epic tale full of people that you care about - Joshua and Louise, Jay and Haile, Ione, Fletcher, the sell rat Andy Behoo. Short diversion -> Was recently given a Clive Cussler book. I got to about 70 pages from the end, and the 'set piece finale' was just about to start when I realised that I could not give a flying feck about any of the characters. And so it got charity shopped. Any author who can build imaginary people so well that you want to come back to them time and again to relive their stories, well, that fella can write.

JonChalk said:

Hamilton and Neal Asher are just the two best British SF writers, IMHO, if you like big, long story arcs over many books. Their ability to maintain consistency and a flow is excellent.

Totally agree. Hamilton's world universe building is awesome, up there with The Culture. Terry Pratchett was pretty decent at it as well! ( I know this is the SciFi bit, but Mr Pratchett is a legend. And I don't do fantasy books. )

I've read a bit of Asher, but not enough to comment, need to go read some more.

My list of books-to-be-read is growing faster than I can read....

[JonChalk]

Schmeeky said:

JonChalk said:

Is this the first of his you've read?

Nope, am a massive fan of what he does - Peter F. and Ian M. are my go to guys when I want a dose of massive world building with out there tech and awesome characters.

Fairly tired paperbacks (especially Pandora's Star and The Neutronium Alchemist) - all pretty much first releases;

Edited by JonChalk on Thursday 9th May 19:31

[Baron Greenback]

^^^ditto and have the mp3 audio book at work make the time fly by esp as each book is about 45 hrs long and gone through nightdawn atleast 3 times and void about 2 times.