good new scifi reads

[Awesome Wells]

Not yet but I loved Empire State and The Age Atomic. quality trope play.

I have those on deck, looking forward to them. Like the look of Burning Dark, but the ebook is silly money (the publisher is Titan, so...)

 

[strung out]

Got to say that the Age Atomic didn't really do it for me. It was well written, dark and pulpy, but I just don't think it was quite my thing. I can't put my finger on it though, so feel free to ignore.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Is Seven Wonders in the same setting?

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

Is Seven Wonders in the same setting?

No it's a sunny LA analogue with last team of supers. It is the same universe though (as New York not Empire City)

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

Just finished Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins - can't believe I waited so long, excellent alternate soviet union with magic and crash landing aliens. Surprised none of the reviews I read seemed to pick up on the manga/anime influences...

 

[Awesome Wells]

Just finished Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins - can't believe I waited so long, excellent alternate soviet union with magic and crash landing aliens. Surprised none of the reviews I read seemed to pick up on the manga/anime influences...

I've had my eye on that for a while, I brought it cheap on the kindle. It's in the queue!

 

[oneunder]

as mentioned on another thread, the sequel to Blindsight by Peter Watts is out soon. I had read july but now it looks like september? dunno.

Echopraxia

reading blindsight at the moment..looking forward to the sequel.. cheers..any more recomendations?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I'm currently reading "Skin Games" by Jim Butcher. Its the most recent in the Dresden Files series (came out last week). Its different than his previous stuff. Its basically his attempt at a caper movie like Ocean's 11 only they're trying to steal the holy grail. It's not great art, but it passes for decent summer reading.

 

[strung out]

Only just finished reading the first one of the trilogy, but Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is absolutely fantastic. A real belter of a novel - I hear the other two are great too.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

I'm currently reading "Skin Games" by Jim Butcher. Its the most recent in the Dresden Files series (came out last week). Its different than his previous stuff. Its basically his attempt at a caper movie like Ocean's 11 only they're trying to steal the holy grail. It's not great art, but it passes for decent summer reading.

The Dresden Files are a great laugh

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

The Dresden Files are a great laugh

Yep!

Informative too! I didn't realize that T-Rexes didn't corner well until I read the Dresden Files.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Shame about the TV show

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Shame about the TV show

Yeah, it didn't hit its stride until about eps 6. By then, they'd cancelled it.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Nothing genre based gets a look in these days (with one notable exception to prove the rule, I guess).

 

[DotCommunist]

tempted by this for the cover art and name alone: Cibola Burn

 

[Awesome Wells]

tempted by this for the cover art and name alone: Cibola Burn

Indeed.

The first book in the series is pretty good (Leviathan Wakes).

 

[rhod]

Neptune's Brood by Charlie Stross,

I've just finished this and can highly recommend it, too. The crypto-economic theme is an interesting spin on space opera, and I like the way that the author takes the piss out of most of the characters. Very funny in places.

The ending was a bit anti-climactic, but I'm assuming that the author has another instalment up his sleeve. I'm hoping for something along the lines of "Rise and fall of the communist squid"!

 

[DotCommunist]

Ken McLoed talking about Ian M Banks and sci fi in general

With the Culture books he was trying to do something very different: to imagine a utopia that people would actually like to live in, his starting point very sensibly being to imagine one he'd like to live in himself. The external threats were his answer to the problem that no matter how exciting a utopia might be to live in, it would be very dull to write about (unless you basically wrote a novel about people's normal relationships within it, about love and heartbreak or whatever, in which case as Iain often pointed out, why not just write a mainstream novel?) I was a lot more interested in the science-fictional possibilities of near-future history than Iain was, especially as unlike him I was convinced that in historical materialism I had a handle on it. The collapse in the Fall Revolution isn't that of neoliberalism, it's that of the entirety of a global capitalism that for various reasons has no opposition growing inside it. So you have a transition that's more like the one from antiquity to feudalism than that from feudalism to capitalism. That rather gloomy speculation intrigued me from my late teens onward – from the moment I read the phrase “the common ruin of the contending classes” in the Communist Manifesto. I do try to bring a more hopeful perspective to what little actual political activity I now take part in, however.

 

[Idris2002]

Capital stuff, thank you Kimble.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I'm not really enjoying consider phlebas, perhaps the rest are better. I'm going to shelve it for now.

 

[DotCommunist]

Capital stuff, thank you Kimble.

a former denizen of this corner of the internet has a Culture/Banks facebook page and one of the contributors found this.

I found Ken's views on scottish indy reff very odd He's a far left pro unionist- and how he squares that circle I don't know but its an entertaining read

 

[DotCommunist]

I'm not really enjoying consider phlebas, perhaps the rest are better. I'm going to shelve it for now.

Try The State of The Art. it's got culture-focused shorts whereas CP takes an outsiders view of them

 

[Awesome Wells]

I may return to it later, but ive plenty of other stuff that appeals more right now so i'm going to read Empire State.

 

[Idaho]

It's a modern sf classic trilogy. Might reread.

Only just finished reading the first one of the trilogy, but Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is absolutely fantastic. A real belter of a novel - I hear the other two are great too.

 

[DotCommunist]

Maddadams didn't do it for me- Orynx n Crake proper proper did though. One of them ones where you wake up and make a cup of tea and as the kettle is brewing you think 'SHIT, need moar of me book'

 

[Idaho]

I thought it was one book in 3 parts with all of it strong. What other recent near future dystopia comes close?

 

[DotCommunist]

parable of the sower/parable of the talents. Butler.

 

[Idaho]

I'll look out for it on audio book.

 

[kropotkin]

I enjoyed lexicon by max Barry. About neurolinguistic hacking and zombification!

 

[Idaho]

Anyone else read wool, shift and dust by Hugh Howey? Not bad. Some flaws, 7 out of 10.