Science Fiction
Discussion
Clockwork Cupcake said:
I recently re-read Larry Niven's book Protector
Still a great read, even after all these years. I may have to dive back into my book case and revisit more of my collection of Niven books.
One of the very few Sci-Fi authors I have actually met. Quite happy to chat to a 12 year old kid for 15 minutes or so which really impressed me at the time; so much so that his books were always at the top of my list to buy.Still a great read, even after all these years. I may have to dive back into my book case and revisit more of my collection of Niven books.
Guvernator said:
The Culture books are some of the best sci-fi I've read so they are a tough act to follow.
Also if you like the Culture novels, try some of the Neal Asher Polity series. They are like the Culture novels on acid. Very similar concept of an AI controlled future society but a bit less weighty and more action orientated.
I know this wasn't directed at me, but I've just finished The Culture series for I think the 8th or 9th time, I'm on my third reading of The Revelation Space series at the moment and I'm desperately looking for something along similar lines to the Iain M Banks stuff to keep me going when I finish the RS books. Also if you like the Culture novels, try some of the Neal Asher Polity series. They are like the Culture novels on acid. Very similar concept of an AI controlled future society but a bit less weighty and more action orientated.
Are they really worth a bulk purchase? I use iBooks on my iPad so will have a browse and see what there is after some deep internet research!
On a side note, when reading The Culture books I always read them in published order, start to finish and don't skip any. All are brilliant but some just more exceptional than others. I always find, despite having read them many times and knowing the plot and endings, that I struggle to put them down once I start. It's hard to describe but I find it very easy to become immersed in the whole Culture world when reading the books, and I'm always sad when I finish the series as I know there will be no more. I now have to leave them alone for a year or so before going back for another round!
D_T_W said:
I know this wasn't directed at me, but I've just finished The Culture series for I think the 8th or 9th time, I'm on my third reading of The Revelation Space series at the moment and I'm desperately looking for something along similar lines to the Iain M Banks stuff to keep me going when I finish the RS books.
Are they really worth a bulk purchase? I use iBooks on my iPad so will have a browse and see what there is after some deep internet research!
On a side note, when reading The Culture books I always read them in published order, start to finish and don't skip any. All are brilliant but some just more exceptional than others. I always find, despite having read them many times and knowing the plot and endings, that I struggle to put them down once I start. It's hard to describe but I find it very easy to become immersed in the whole Culture world when reading the books, and I'm always sad when I finish the series as I know there will be no more. I now have to leave them alone for a year or so before going back for another round!
As a fellow Iain M Banks / Alastair Reynolds fan can I suggest the following who offer good long reads;Are they really worth a bulk purchase? I use iBooks on my iPad so will have a browse and see what there is after some deep internet research!
On a side note, when reading The Culture books I always read them in published order, start to finish and don't skip any. All are brilliant but some just more exceptional than others. I always find, despite having read them many times and knowing the plot and endings, that I struggle to put them down once I start. It's hard to describe but I find it very easy to become immersed in the whole Culture world when reading the books, and I'm always sad when I finish the series as I know there will be no more. I now have to leave them alone for a year or so before going back for another round!
Dan Worth - Progenitor trilogy - little bit lighter than banks, but enjoyable.
Anything by Peter F Hamilton (though check order; some are series without always having been described that way) - some stuff very long / very good value. My personal favourite author.
Neal Asher (as suggested above) - but, again, check order; could be read out of sequence, but make more sense in order.
JonChalk said:
As a fellow Iain M Banks / Alastair Reynolds fan can I suggest the following who offer good long reads;
Dan Worth - Progenitor trilogy - little bit lighter than banks, but enjoyable.
Anything by Peter F Hamilton (though check order; some are series without always having been described that way) - some stuff very long / very good value. My personal favourite author.
Neal Asher (as suggested above) - but, again, check order; could be read out of sequence, but make more sense in order.
As above, plus Dan Worth - Progenitor trilogy - little bit lighter than banks, but enjoyable.
Anything by Peter F Hamilton (though check order; some are series without always having been described that way) - some stuff very long / very good value. My personal favourite author.
Neal Asher (as suggested above) - but, again, check order; could be read out of sequence, but make more sense in order.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon obviously) also like his others.
Neal Stephenson Diamond Age (one of my all time fav scifi), Snow crash and Cryptonomicon read in published order (i think)
Baron Greenback said:
Neal Stephenson Diamond Age (one of my all time fav scifi), Snow crash and Cryptonomicon read in published order (i think)
I do like Neal Stephenson's work, but he really doesn't know how to conclude a book. Even Cryptonomicon, which is thick enough to club baby seals with, has a very rushed and weak ending. You find yourself getting down to the last few pages thinking "how the hell is he going to conclude this with so few pages remaining?". Likewise Snow Crash, which is a book very dear to me, has a very Deus Ex Machina ending that is really rather too convenient and quick. Definitely worth reading them, though.
I would stay away from Seveneves though. I think I posted a review to it here a while back.
Edit:
Seems like I didn't post my Seven Eves review here. So here it is cut & paste from another site where I did post it. And, yes, I did re-use the "club baby seals" gag.
Clockwork Cupcake said:
First off, I am a big fan of Neal Stephenson's work and Snow Crash is a favourite book of mine, but my goodness what a mess this book is.
It reads like a long Shaggy Dog story to get to the punchline of the title. He spends pages and pages on the minutiae of orbital mechanics, which to even someone with heavy scientific background like myself felt excessive and overly detailed, and then glosses over loads of improbable science with hand-wavy "never mind about that" dismissal.
Likewise loads of narrative is simply omitted, and there is rather a lot of "tell don't show" too, inasmuch as for example we are told that a piece of information has come from a chap in a space suit drifting away without hope of rescue but still in radio contact, but we never hear the conversation. It's just mentioned in passing. And we're told that Doob fell in love and married but never get to see much evidence of it. In fact a lot of the book is like that - we're told that stuff happened but it feels like he can't actually be bothered to tell us about it so just waves his arms a bit and says "away, some stuff happened". Even the end of the world was pretty much "so anyway, the world ended, and then they..."
It's like in Revenge of the Sith where we are told via a conversation that Annakin and Obi Wan have had great adventures together and saved each other's backs several times, but see little or no evidence of it in their interactions together on screen.
Anyway, overall it was a fairly disappointing book. And frankly the whole "5000 years later" belongs in a separate book, especially as it stops somewhat abruptly, setting the scene for a sequel.
As with Cryptonomicon, Stephenson really doesn't seem to know how to end a book even though he makes them thick enough to club baby seals to death with.
Frankly I'm not really sure how I stuck with it to the end, but I did.
It reads like a long Shaggy Dog story to get to the punchline of the title. He spends pages and pages on the minutiae of orbital mechanics, which to even someone with heavy scientific background like myself felt excessive and overly detailed, and then glosses over loads of improbable science with hand-wavy "never mind about that" dismissal.
Likewise loads of narrative is simply omitted, and there is rather a lot of "tell don't show" too, inasmuch as for example we are told that a piece of information has come from a chap in a space suit drifting away without hope of rescue but still in radio contact, but we never hear the conversation. It's just mentioned in passing. And we're told that Doob fell in love and married but never get to see much evidence of it. In fact a lot of the book is like that - we're told that stuff happened but it feels like he can't actually be bothered to tell us about it so just waves his arms a bit and says "away, some stuff happened". Even the end of the world was pretty much "so anyway, the world ended, and then they..."
It's like in Revenge of the Sith where we are told via a conversation that Annakin and Obi Wan have had great adventures together and saved each other's backs several times, but see little or no evidence of it in their interactions together on screen.
Anyway, overall it was a fairly disappointing book. And frankly the whole "5000 years later" belongs in a separate book, especially as it stops somewhat abruptly, setting the scene for a sequel.
As with Cryptonomicon, Stephenson really doesn't seem to know how to end a book even though he makes them thick enough to club baby seals to death with.
Frankly I'm not really sure how I stuck with it to the end, but I did.
Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Sunday 4th November 14:43
Clockwork Cupcake said:
I do like Neal Stephenson's work, but he really doesn't know how to conclude a book. Even Cryptonomicon, which is thick enough to club baby seals with, has a very rushed and weak ending. You find yourself getting down to the last few pages thinking "how the hell is he going to conclude this with so few pages remaining?". Likewise Snow Crash, which is a book very dear to me, has a very Deus Ex Machina ending that is really rather too convenient and quick.
Definitely worth reading them, though.
I would stay away from Seveneves though. I think I posted a review to it here a while back.
Agree re: Neal Stephenson - just not quite in the same league - I just don't chase his books down like I do the others - I read 'em then forget them - never read them more than once.Definitely worth reading them, though.
I would stay away from Seveneves though. I think I posted a review to it here a while back.
I think that's a common thing in Sci-Fi and now TV series, too (thanks J.J Abrams!). It's (relatively) easy to create this open-endedexplosion of peril, but resolving it neatly in a believable way is harder.
Something I liked about Children of Time was the way the ending was so sudden as to be a genuine surprise, yet staring at you in the face for much of the book. A hundred pages from the end I was certain there would need to be a second book to resolve it.
Something I liked about Children of Time was the way the ending was so sudden as to be a genuine surprise, yet staring at you in the face for much of the book. A hundred pages from the end I was certain there would need to be a second book to resolve it.
glazbagun said:
Something I liked about Children of Time was the way the ending was so sudden as to be a genuine surprise, yet staring at you in the face for much of the book. A hundred pages from the end I was certain there would need to be a second book to resolve it.
Yes, I totally agree with you. I too was thinking "how on earth is he going to resolve this?" and then at the end thought "D'Oh! It was staring me in the face the whole time". It was very cleverly done and immensely satisfying. No rabbits pulled out of the hat, no Deus Ex Machina, just beautifully-written, well-crafted, and completely self-consistent.
(Incidentally, I don't think your comments were particularly spoilery, but have put my reply in spoiler tags likewise)
JonChalk said:
As a fellow Iain M Banks / Alastair Reynolds fan can I suggest the following who offer good long reads;
Dan Worth - Progenitor trilogy - little bit lighter than banks, but enjoyable.
Anything by Peter F Hamilton (though check order; some are series without always having been described that way) - some stuff very long / very good value. My personal favourite author.
Neal Asher (as suggested above) - but, again, check order; could be read out of sequence, but make more sense in order.
+1 on Neal Asher and Peter F Hamilton, if you liked Bank's Culture universe you'll like Asher's Polity universe. There's a lot of similarities (I.E. wise cracking AI's) yet different enough to be excellent in its own right.Dan Worth - Progenitor trilogy - little bit lighter than banks, but enjoyable.
Anything by Peter F Hamilton (though check order; some are series without always having been described that way) - some stuff very long / very good value. My personal favourite author.
Neal Asher (as suggested above) - but, again, check order; could be read out of sequence, but make more sense in order.
There are a lot of books in different series, the order you read the series in doesn't matter but the books in the series need to be read in order. I'd start with Gridlinked, the first in the Agent Cormac series and the ostensible starting point for Asher novels.
If you like Military Sci-Fi,
Jamie Sawyer - Lazarus War
John Scalzi - Old Man's War
Hello chaps ...looking for some new (hard-ish) sci-fi recos ......
As most here, I have read ( and re-read) all of Banks' culture novels - he is the master!
Alistair Reynolds I have a bit of a love/meh relationship with .....Loved Revenger, was a bit underwhelmed by Revelation Space (I can hear the cries of 'HERESY'!)
Cory Doctorow I generally enjoy - particularly Walkaway
Peter Watts - I have read Blindsight - I think I enjoyed it, but often times found myself having to re-read chunks of it
Just finished The Rig by Roger Levy which was better than I was expecting.
So who should i be looking at ?
As most here, I have read ( and re-read) all of Banks' culture novels - he is the master!
Alistair Reynolds I have a bit of a love/meh relationship with .....Loved Revenger, was a bit underwhelmed by Revelation Space (I can hear the cries of 'HERESY'!)
Cory Doctorow I generally enjoy - particularly Walkaway
Peter Watts - I have read Blindsight - I think I enjoyed it, but often times found myself having to re-read chunks of it
Just finished The Rig by Roger Levy which was better than I was expecting.
So who should i be looking at ?
I am about halfway through Richard Morgan's Thin Air. Takeshi is back! Well, not really, but it's Takeshi's close cousin. This is a new universe, set on Mars in the not-too-distant future, where Mars is being run by corporations like an interplanetary Hong Kong.
It's a noir-tinged detective tale starring our hero, a grumpy banger of heads with a central moral core coated with all manner of vaguely illegal tech augmentations. You wouldn't want to annoy him and yet people seem to be going out of their way to do so. Excellent so far and no reason why the second half won't keep up the pace.
It's a noir-tinged detective tale starring our hero, a grumpy banger of heads with a central moral core coated with all manner of vaguely illegal tech augmentations. You wouldn't want to annoy him and yet people seem to be going out of their way to do so. Excellent so far and no reason why the second half won't keep up the pace.
Since I have played the games Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light extensively, and am looking forward to Metro: Exodus, I thought I would take a look at the books.
The books, upon which the video games are based, are by Dmitry Glukhovsky and consist of Metro 2033, Metro 2034, and Metro 2035
Metro 2033 is currently 99p on Amazon Kindle, so I've taken a punt. So far, the plot closely follows the first game (or, rather, vice versa).
I'll post a review when I get further in, but so far I'm enjoying it.
The books, upon which the video games are based, are by Dmitry Glukhovsky and consist of Metro 2033, Metro 2034, and Metro 2035
Metro 2033 is currently 99p on Amazon Kindle, so I've taken a punt. So far, the plot closely follows the first game (or, rather, vice versa).
I'll post a review when I get further in, but so far I'm enjoying it.
Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Tuesday 27th November 21:51
popeyewhite said:
Baron Greenback said:
Still think the best ending of a book is The Wasp Factory Banks fiction! How about yours?
Use of Weapons, another Banks. Really didn't see that coming! 
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