Sci Fi recommendations

[K]

1 hour ago, ZOK said:

That is fucking hilarious!

 

Honestly, some sections of it read like a Yewtree debriefing document. 

[ZOK]

Sweet Jesus! 

[Talvalin]

Never bothered me to be honest, but then I read the book before Yewtree and had been completely unaware of his arrests for possession of child pornography in the late 90s. My biggest problem with Chasm City is how blatantly it rips off a very specific Iain M. Banks novel and thus gives away the ending very early on.

 

I note that Chasm City was only his second book, so he does get a lot better with his characters even if he still has trouble finishing books properly.

[JoeK]

10 hours ago, K said:

I'm currently read Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds, and I'm finding it a bit of a slog. I've enjoyed some of his other books, but this one isn't very well-written. I think he struggles with creating distinctive characters generally (like a lot of hard SF writers, admittedly), but he is struggling quite a lot in this one. In the other books of his that I've read, the characters have been scientists, astronauts, starship captains, etc, but in this one, the protagonist is a grizzled mercenary, and the tough-guy dialogue is extremely unconvincing. It reads more like some nerds playing a sci-fi pen & paper RPG than any kind of believable war veteran; there's one bit where the narrator is talking about killing and the toll it takes on a man, and I found it hard to believe that University of Newcastle physics graduate Alastair Reynolds is speaking from experience.

 

Iain Banks uses mercenaries and secret agents in his books, but he cleverly sets up the worlds he writes about so that people he is familiar with (huntin' and shootin' Empire types and vain posh women) would believably fill those roles. With this, the so-called tough guys come across as geeks pretending to be geezers. The same goes for the worldbuilding in general - the colonists on the world the book is set on are descended from Hispanic / South American nations, which means they have Hispanic names and occasionally use the handful of Spanish / Portuguese words that Reynolds has looked up, but otherwise just speak like all his other characters.

 

Also, and this is probably a slightly unfair criticism but whatever, some of the nomenclature is very bad. One of the central locations, a ring of orbiting space stations, is called the Glitter Band, which just makes me think of Gary Glitter. I suspect this may be an in-joke for British readers, but it's a bit distracting and doesn't really work with the tone of the novel.

 

It's rare I give up on a book, but I might ditch this one if it doesn't pick up pretty soon.

 

I went from Revelation Space to this Chasm City and it was a bit of a cluster fuck the first time I read it, that's sure. I honestly wasn't sure what the fuck was going most of the time. But I re-read it a few years back and it clicked a little better. It's what I call 'hard as nails' sci-fi, and I kind of have to pace myself with them. 

 

I love Pushing Ice though, which was the last book I read by him. Thought that captured a whole load of Arthur C Clarke energy and a considerably easier read!

[jimmyrazor]

I read Chasm City a couple of years ago and found it pretty unsatisfying too. All I remember about it now is that there was some ok world building involving a wealthy upper world and a grimy lower world that felt like it might have been borrowed from a dozen other works, it was about 350 pages too long and the final twist

 

Spoiler

went all ‘Total Recall’, where it turned out that the guy the protagonist was chasing was actually himself pre-mind-wipe. Is that right? 

 

I was very disappointed after enjoying Revelation Space so much. I haven’t gone back to Reynolds since, but I’m guessing some of his other books are much better?

[jimmyrazor]

Speaking of 350 pages too long I’ve just finished Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear. Once again I’ve been a victim of my own stupidity, as getting the book on Kindle meant I had little idea how long it was before I started. It turns out it’s too long. 

 

It’s about an independent salvage engineer and her buddies who come across an abandoned ship in deep space that contains

 

Spoiler

evidence of illegal alien tissue harvesting. While inspecting the ship she’s infected with a parasite that enables her to sense gravitational waves, just as the space pirates who were doing the harvesting turn up. There’s a chase across the galaxy and a race to find an even bigger prize, an ancient ship that’s orbiting a black hole, and which might contain an incredible secret…

 

It sounds exciting summarised in a paragraph like that, and there are some fun ideas, but I found the actual book far too long and repetitive. It feels a bit like it was written without any firm outline of where it was going, and the final denouement 

 

Spoiler

where they discover a Dyson sphere around a star about to go nova

 

seems to come out of nowhere. I just felt like it went on and on, and I ended up skipping paragraphs as I approached the end, hoping to get it over with. If it had been 300 pages long and not 700 it would have been a lot more enjoyable. 

[ZOK]

On 29/09/2022 at 19:54, Talvalin said:

Never bothered me to be honest, but then I read the book before Yewtree and had been completely unaware of his arrests for possession of child pornography in the late 90s. My biggest problem with Chasm City is how blatantly it rips off a very specific Iain M. Banks novel and thus gives away the ending very early on.

 

I note that Chasm City was only his second book, so he does get a lot better with his characters even if he still has trouble finishing books properly.

 

I think calling a place Chasm City is fine - it's just if you read that for the first time in a paragraph with somewhere else called the Glitter Band it sounds preposterous. Especially with that clunky writing.

 

He should throw in some rapids called the Wristy Twisties for good measure.

[Padaxes]

On 29/09/2022 at 11:43, K said:

 

 

Also, and this is probably a slightly unfair criticism but whatever, some of the nomenclature is very bad. One of the central locations, a ring of orbiting space stations, is called the Glitter Band, which just makes me think of Gary Glitter. I suspect this may be an in-joke for British readers, but it's a bit distracting and doesn't really work with the tone of the novel.

 

I suggest you have a stern word with your brain. 

Chasm city is not without its faults, but the Inhibitor series is overall a fantastic piece of hard sci fi, far reaching in scope with really dark, interesting ideas, some great characters and some good science as well. I think if your reading something like this and thinking there are jokes about Gary Glitter in there you are doing it and yourself a diservice. 

Also @jimmyrazor

 

Quote

All I remember about it now is that there was some ok world building involving a wealthy upper world and a grimy lower world that felt like it might have been borrowed from a dozen other works

Someone else mentioned and Ian M Banks influence as well. All sci fi is influenced and inspired by earlier works. You can find plenty of sci fi that influence Ian M Banks as well , and the books those guys riffed off and on it goes. Building on and expanding is what sci fi does. I was always very happy with how the Inhibitor series mashed old and new ideas into something very much its own.
 

[K]

I struggle to believe that a British man born in 1966 is going to be unaware of the Glitter Band. It's like Iain M Banks deciding to call his futuristic civilisation the Rubettes.

[Flub]

Has anyone else read Jodi Taylor's The Chronicles of Saint Mary's series. It's about a historical research organisation that uses time machines to do the research live (So to speak). It's both extremely funny and also tends to the serious (A lot of stuff happens). If you decide to read stick with it. She writes herself into a corner very early on and takes a swerve that doesn't really land to get herself back into a stable place but that's all in the first couple of books I think. After that it just gets better and better. Currently up to book 13 with a side series about the Time Police (Bastards) up to book 4.

 

The historians are a bit of a disaster prone bunch and a big part of the funny is the stuff they get up to (Testing leather armour with a rapid fire chicken cannon sort of stuff.

 

Definitely recommended if you fancy something more long term. Very easy to read.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Damned-Thing-After-Another-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B07MB9YLWS/

 

https://www.headline.co.uk/series-guide/2019/10/11/the-chronicles-of-st-marys-series-guide/

 

There's also a couple of books of short stories.

[ZOK]

I’m amazed at your appetite for these bizarrely elongated series, @Flub. Personally speaking, unless the author is someone like Moorcock or Tolkien I’m highly suspicious of any novel ideas that need to develop past book number one, maybe two…and the idea of reading a series that includes the sorts of numbers you are talking about gives me the fear.

 

Unless each ‘book’ is actually the length of a chapter.

[Flub]

3 minutes ago, ZOK said:

I’m amazed at your appetite for these bizarrely elongated series, @Flub. Personally speaking, unless the author is someone like Moorcock or Tolkien I’m highly suspicious of any novel ideas that need to develop past book number one, maybe two…and the idea of reading a series that includes the sorts of numbers you are talking about gives me the fear.

 

Unless each ‘book’ is actually the length of a chapter.

 

In my defense it totally depends on the series. In this case they're a decent length but so easy to read. It's decently written junk food for the brain. After I read the current book i'm over onto The Thousand Earths by Stephen Baxter so I hope I can keep my nerd cred intact

 

The St Mary's books are generally split into chunks. Parts of them will be "Historians organise trip to the past. Chaos ensues" interspersed with different elements of back story happen. And the back story tends to happen out of order a lot. It's kinda like having a bunch of short storys that are also a novel so it goes down pretty easily.

 

Have you ever read Jasper Fford's Thursday Next series (If you haven't you really should).

[Nick R]

On 29/09/2022 at 11:43, K said:

I'm currently read Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds, and I'm finding it a bit of a slog. I've enjoyed some of his other books, but this one isn't very well-written. I think he struggles with creating distinctive characters generally (like a lot of hard SF writers, admittedly), but he is struggling quite a lot in this one. In the other books of his that I've read, the characters have been scientists, astronauts, starship captains, etc, but in this one, the protagonist is a grizzled mercenary, and the tough-guy dialogue is extremely unconvincing. It reads more like some nerds playing a sci-fi pen & paper RPG than any kind of believable war veteran; there's one bit where the narrator is talking about killing and the toll it takes on a man, and I found it hard to believe that University of Newcastle physics graduate Alastair Reynolds is speaking from experience.

 

Iain Banks uses mercenaries and secret agents in his books, but he cleverly sets up the worlds he writes about so that people he is familiar with (huntin' and shootin' Empire types and vain posh women) would believably fill those roles. With this, the so-called tough guys come across as geeks pretending to be geezers. The same goes for the worldbuilding in general - the colonists on the world the book is set on are descended from Hispanic / South American nations, which means they have Hispanic names and occasionally use the handful of Spanish / Portuguese words that Reynolds has looked up, but otherwise just speak like all his other characters.

 

Also, and this is probably a slightly unfair criticism but whatever, some of the nomenclature is very bad. One of the central locations, a ring of orbiting space stations, is called the Glitter Band, which just makes me think of Gary Glitter. I suspect this may be an in-joke for British readers, but it's a bit distracting and doesn't really work with the tone of the novel.

 

It's rare I give up on a book, but I might ditch this one if it doesn't pick up pretty soon.

 

I enjoyed Chasm City, but pretty the only things I can remember of it now are that it had a good description of a collapsing space elevator, and the Clown AI/optical illusion.

[K]

18 hours ago, Nick R said:

 

I enjoyed Chasm City, but pretty the only things I can remember of it now are that it had a good description of a collapsing space elevator, and the Clown AI/optical illusion.

There's some really good imagery and some very interesting ideas. It just feels like the author is in a mode he’s not comfortable in when it comes to the characters and dialogue. He’s not a tough guy or a street kid, and unfortunately there are lots of both of those things in the story. 
 

The street kid character in particular feels like he’s just channeling Short Round from Indiana Jones. 

[Uncle Mike]

Thanks to everyone for repeatedly recommending There Is No Antimemetics Division. Just ploughed through it on holiday, and it was great.

[Sane]

I really want to reread it but there's so many other books I want to read.

[milko]

qntm's got a new short story collection out, since we're on topic. I think some of these were published elsewhere originally so it's not completely fresh.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valuable-Humans-Transit-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B0BL24DFMW/

[Flub]

1 hour ago, milko said:

qntm's got a new short story collection out, since we're on topic. I think some of these were published elsewhere originally so it's not completely fresh.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valuable-Humans-Transit-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B0BL24DFMW/

 

Damn. I love that cover.

[smac]

On 02/11/2022 at 10:42, milko said:

qntm's got a new short story collection out, since we're on topic. I think some of these were published elsewhere originally so it's not completely fresh.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valuable-Humans-Transit-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B0BL24DFMW/

 

I just started 'There is no antimimetics division' as it has been recommended here, and was in a recent Kindle Deal; it's pretty good, so I think I'll be giving that collection a go, thanks.

[joemul]

Whoah, just remembered Children of Memory is out. 

 

<downloads>

[ZOK]

On 02/11/2022 at 10:42, milko said:

qntm's got a new short story collection out, since we're on topic. I think some of these were published elsewhere originally so it's not completely fresh.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valuable-Humans-Transit-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B0BL24DFMW/

 

This is alright - it's very slight for the money but certainly worth a read. It has the excellent story Lena in it which is nice, but you can read that online if you want. Not an essential collection by any means though.

[Sane]

On 04/12/2022 at 13:10, ZOK said:

 

This is alright - it's very slight for the money but certainly worth a read. It has the excellent story Lena in it which is nice, but you can read that online if you want. Not an essential collection by any means though.

Agreed. It's only £2.61 though, so well worth that I'd say. I'm hoping he'll release a proper new novel soon, his books really scratch a particular itch that you can't really get in many other places. Speaking of that, do you have any recommendations for similarly themed books?

[ZOK]

7 hours ago, Sane said:

Agreed. It's only £2.61 though, so well worth that I'd say. I'm hoping he'll release a proper new novel soon, his books really scratch a particular itch that you can't really get in many other places. Speaking of that, do you have any recommendations for similarly themed books?

Hmm, I’m not sure what you mean by similarly themed. Like modern, social media, nature of digital life / identity type stuff? Or high physics? I would say any relatively contemporary best of year anthology will have a lot of that in it. I’ve been exclusively listening to Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year collections and they are very good, but you’ll find a lot of stuff in those that don’t fit the categorisation as well, because there are many stories.

[Sane]

2 hours ago, ZOK said:

Hmm, I’m not sure what you mean by similarly themed. Like modern, social media, nature of digital life / identity type stuff? Or high physics? I would say any relatively contemporary best of year anthology will have a lot of that in it. I’ve been exclusively listening to Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year collections and they are very good, but you’ll find a lot of stuff in those that don’t fit the categorisation as well, because there are many stories.

I think the physics part of it is what appeals to me, the concepts he comes up with and the way he spins the stories out and blows up the scale. That said I wouldn't call myself a hard sci-fi buff. Anyway thanks for recommending those anthologies, that's actually much better than searching for something similar to what I already know! 

[ZOK]

I don’t think you can go wrong with the Clarke collections then, you’ll find there is stacks of that stuff. They are amazing value for money too, I’m audiobooking them as I say and they clock in at around thirty hours.

[ZOK]

Also, another thing about the Clarke anthologies is he picks a wide variety of stories from around the world, so you get some interesting cultural flavours too.

[SozzlyJoe]

17 hours ago, ZOK said:

Also, another thing about the Clarke anthologies is he picks a wide variety of stories from around the world, so you get some interesting cultural flavours too.

 

Can second this, thanks for the recommend. Price is right too for the first audiobook! I'd been looking for a new anthology since poor old Gardner Dozois popped his clogs. The Clarke ones are similar in the type of stories picked, sometimes sci-fi can be a bit too numinous but his picks are pretty solid. Lavie Tidhar has an international anthology which I tried but found a little patchy as it's full of that brand of sci-fi where the stories never seem to have proper beginnings or endings, just middles and where 'science' is just a synonym for 'magic'. I'm terribly conventional in this way alas. That said, it's probably worth a read as there are a few gems in there. Also has a built in bookmark which is AWESOME.

[ZOK]

Yes, I think he’s a legitimate heir to the Dozois mantle (although has he written anything himself? I don’t know).

 

If you like the first collection I think the second is even better - I’m on number three now and to me it’s not quite as good…which essentially just means there are still loads of brilliant stories, but I’ve loved slightly less than 95% of them!

[LaveDisco]

I’m half way through Qntm’s new collection and I think it’s fantastic. Such good ideas in such easy reading fashion. Thanks for the recommendations. 
 

For those looking for similar - once again I would recommend Greg Egan - he’s got a similar physics first approach, but it’s even harder scifi. 
 

Quarantine, and Computation City and super accessible and fantastic. 

[Padaxes]

16 hours ago, LaveDisco said:

I’m half way through Qntm’s new collection and I think it’s fantastic. Such good ideas in such easy reading fashion. Thanks for the recommendations. 
 

For those looking for similar - once again I would recommend Greg Egan - he’s got a similar physics first approach, but it’s even harder scifi. 
 

Quarantine, and Computation City and super accessible and fantastic. 

 

Do you mean  Permutation City ?