Sci Fi recommendations

[Flub]

 

Also the balls on him with the title "Braver Newer World"

[lolly]

I'm rereading Dune after originally reading  it about 20 years ago and thinking it was a bit meh and couldn't see what the fuss was, the whole messiah thing just left me cold. Currently about 30% of the way through and despite being initially turned off by the opening exchange   for some reason, leftover bias perhaps , I'm loving it , there's so much depth to the world, politics and lore of this universe.

 

Younger me is an idiot and deserves to be walloped in the back of the head with the hardback version.

[Rocafella]

I just ordered the hardback version this morning 😂

 

Never read Dune before, and only looked in to what it is about after seeing the first trailer for the upcoming film and thinking 'this looks insane' (in a good way). 

 

Haven't finished a book in a while (I enjoy reading, but struggle forcing myself to actually do so), so I'm looking forward to it!

[ZOK]

18 hours ago, Nick R said:

An incredible author's bio:

 

 

 

 

Wow, an author who never falls prey to any of those mistakes must be amazing!

 

... Right?

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Some of the warnings on his books:

 

 

 

 

 

Mind you, when you remember he’s talking about his Amazon peers, his criticism of their abilities is pretty fair.

[lolly]

 

Pascal Blanche on artstation is worth a look- I've ordered a print of this so that I can frame it and put up.

 

 

[Ste Pickford]

Not sure if this is the best thread for this, but wanted to post that I finished This is How You Lose the Time War last night, which I thought was an incredible book.

 

However, it was only when I was reading the dedications at the end, after the book was finished, that I realised it was written by two different authors, and it kind of blew my mind slightly.  It's not a spoiler or anything, it says so on the cover, I just didn't notice.  Anyway, finding that out at the end made the book twice as good.

[ZOK]

It was a very nice read, but ultimately unsatisfying I thought. It had the concluding woo that such a set up makes inevitable I guess. A solid piece of work though, and as you say it’s mightily impressive that it was a collaboration.

[Exidor]

Is Neal Asher good? I've been slogging away at The Soldier audiobook for a couple of hours and I don't know if it's the narrator or the writing but none of it is going in. Is it worth trying it in written format?

[Stopharage]

I really struggle with listening to Sci-Fi audiobooks, especially when there’s a lot of characters or a variety of settings. 

[smac]

49 minutes ago, Exidor said:

Is Neal Asher good? I've been slogging away at The Soldier audiobook for a couple of hours and I don't know if it's the narrator or the writing but none of it is going in. Is it worth trying it in written format?

 

He's on the pulp side; I generally enjoy blasting through his books, but like you'd watch an action movie.

 

I wouldn't class him as a great SF writer, but I've got all his stuff, so he must be doing something right. I think I got into him when Richard Morgan's Kovacs books dried up.

[Flub]

Asher had a very bad period where he and his blog were obsessed with the same sort of politics as Tangles (Asher was an ex-pat in Greece at the time). You can see vague hints of it in most of his books but for the most part he doesn't let it seep in. However don't read his "Owner trilogy" which is basically "Here's the dystopia if labour stay in power"

 

He looks a bit like Tangles mind. Thankfully he seems to have come out of that part of his life. As has been said his books are pretty pulpy but entertaining. I've read them all except the latest. Jack Four. It was Asher by the numbers and didn't engage me in the slightest.

[Talvalin]

Never been a fan as such, but I remember enjoying his standalone novel, Cowl which was a fairly bonkers time travel story featuring warring sides from the 43rd century and a homeless teenager from the present day who gets sucked into their conflict.

[Padaxes]

19 hours ago, Exidor said:

Is Neal Asher good? I've been slogging away at The Soldier audiobook for a couple of hours and I don't know if it's the narrator or the writing but none of it is going in. Is it worth trying it in written format?

 

They are... pulp. I quite enjoyed them on the whole, it's not challenging, just action based and usually entertaining. They get a bit samey after a while mind you. 

 

Edit: Also The Soldier is WAY into the series, You want to Start with Prador Moon - then read 17 more books before you get to The Soldier.

I am however enjoying the start of Inhibitor Phase very much! It's good to be back in revelation space.

[Exidor]

Yeah, it definitely felt like I was joining a story already in progress. To be fair he does a decent job of explaining most of the backstory but I think that's part of what was keeping me from getting into it. It's hard to tell which bits are actually relevant and which bits are just "this person/ai is in this part of the galaxy because these reasons stretching back hundreds of years ok now here's the plot". I'll see if Prador Moon is cheap anywhere and give that a go, cheers.

[Padaxes]

2 hours ago, Exidor said:

Yeah, it definitely felt like I was joining a story already in progress. To be fair he does a decent job of explaining most of the backstory but I think that's part of what was keeping me from getting into it. It's hard to tell which bits are actually relevant and which bits are just "this person/ai is in this part of the galaxy because these reasons stretching back hundreds of years ok now here's the plot". I'll see if Prador Moon is cheap anywhere and give that a go, cheers.

 

One of the reasons it gets repetitive is because you keep getting those recaps.

Either write a standalone novel or a series imo. Dont try and do both.

[lolly]

13 hours ago, Padaxes said:

 

They are... pulp. I quite enjoyed them on the whole, it's not challenging, just action based and usually entertaining. They get a bit samey after a while mind you. 

 

Edit: Also The Soldier is WAY into the series, You want to Start with Prador Moon - then read 17 more books before you get to The Soldier.

I am however enjoying the start of Inhibitor Phase very much! It's good to be back in revelation space.

I read the synopsis  at the weekend and immediately put it on my wishlist.

 

 

 

[Flub]

17 hours ago, Padaxes said:

 

One of the reasons it gets repetitive is because you keep getting those recaps.

Either write a standalone novel or a series imo. Dont try and do both.

 

Yup. The Soldier is the continuation of a minor plot point at the end of Asher's first series. He also muddies the waters by jumping around in time between series. Backwards and forwards and he rarely makes it clear when you are. The Spatterjay books for example are set long after the end of the Cormac series and the current book Jack four somewhere in between. To be fair to Asher he does keep a timeline on his website but it's the sort of info that needs to be clearer in the books.

 

Reading order wise it's not even a case of "In published order" since you probably want to read Agent Cormac before Spatterjay but I believe that's not the published order. Also I think Prador Moon is chronologically first but might hit harder if you read it later.

[Padaxes]

1 hour ago, Flub said:

 

Reading order wise it's not even a case of "In published order" since you probably want to read Agent Cormac before Spatterjay but I believe that's not the published order. Also I think Prador Moon is chronologically first but might hit harder if you read it later.

 

The wiki has puplished and chronoligical   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Asher

 

I think I read them in published order by series, so all of Agent Cormac then Spattterjay series etc.

[Flub]

I've started reading the new Alistair Reynolds book. Only 53 pages in so far but it's very good. Also starting to get a bit creepy.

[smac]

Creepy spooky, or creepy #metoo?

[Flub]

8 hours ago, smac said:

Creepy spooky, or creepy #metoo?

 

Creepy spooky but that didn't last long. It's a very Reynolds book but still a page turner so far.

[PK]

I'm still re-reading the previous Revelation Space books before getting into Inhibitor Phase. Although I might skip the last third of Absolute Gap like Reynolds did, lololol

[Vemsie]

Reynolds does creepy spooky pretty well. His short story The Nightingale is an excellent little slice of sci-fi horror.

[Flub]

4 hours ago, PK said:

I'm still re-reading the previous Revelation Space books before getting into Inhibitor Phase. Although I might skip the last third of Absolute Gap like Reynolds did, lololol

 

I don't remember much about Absolution gap except

 

1. I didn't really enjoy it

2. At the time it felt like the epilogue with the Wolves came from nowhere but that was maybe me forgetting earlier books. Thinking about a reread of all three.

 

I'm about 3/4s of the way through the new one and really enjoying it.

[Talvalin]

14 minutes ago, Flub said:

 

I don't remember much about Absolution gap except

 

1. I didn't really enjoy it

2. At the time it felt like the epilogue with the Wolves came from nowhere but that was maybe me forgetting earlier books. Thinking about a reread of all three.

 

I'm about 3/4s of the way through the new one and really enjoying it.

 

I really liked the huge gothic cathedrals on wheels thing as a conceit, albeit removed from the epic locales of previous books (even including Chasm City), but that downbeat epilogue came out of nowhere and was am absolutely dire ending to a series about humanity persevering in the face of robots trying to annihilate them from the galaxy. Meh.

 

That said, Reynolds has always a lot of problems ending books (like Neal Stephenson come to think of it). He has improved over time, there is always a feeling of extreme plot acceleration towards the last few chapters in his books.

[Flub]

Neal Stephenson can't finish a book to save his life. Every single one I've read has been ultimately disapointing. And not in a "He didn't explain things". I've got no problem with ambiguous endings (A lot of the sci-fi I read has them anyway). He just tends to ... stop.

[Flub]

Ok. Reynolds still can't finish a book. Ruined in literally the last two pages. But I suppose given we already know the end of the story there wasn't much more he could do.

[Flub]

I'm so disapointed with that I've ditched my plan to reread the earlier books and have gone back to a series I've struggled with. Peter Hamilton's Salvation sequence. The first book was interesting but not super captivating. The second didn't start fast enough and I got distracted and drifted away. I'm back on it now. Forgotten most of the characters but a lot of the plot is coming back to me and the fall of a high tech future earth is fascinating.

 

 

[Padaxes]

I enjoyed returning to Revalation Space , but not as much as I hoped I would. 

It started out very promisingly but was let down ultimatley by being a "book in the gaps" I think. 

 

Spoiler

I felt like he was trying to hard to fit into the existing history and include too many familiar characters and places.

He also stole from us what should have a been a climactic battle., for the book at least even if it could never be for the arc itself.

 

Overall some good bits and some less good bits and a possbily anticlimactic ending.  Worth a read if you are a fan of the series.

[Padaxes]

I also just finished Lightchaser by P Hamilton and another guy. I enjoyed ... half of it but it was possibly tainted by Hamiltons Touch 🤣 It's hard to tell in a cowritten book but I detected some of the old trademarks in there.

 

Spoiler

My least favourite parts of Hamiltons books are the pastoral idyles , or low tech fantasy  elements he loves to dwell on. My least favourite parts of The Nights Dawns trilogy on that bloody wine making planet. Then he did a whole series with the dreaming void to give whole books worth of it. 

So there I was enjoying some quite hard sci fi only to be quite annoyed to be back there again for a bit. 
 

 

Other than that I enjoyed the premise and the book, even if it felt a bit abrupt.