good new scifi reads
- Thread starter Spanky Longhorn
- Start date
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
the ex bought me Wool, I thought it was good but wasn't encouraged enough to seek out the follow ons. I liked the internal silo politicking the factionalism between the various arms and levels- but the overall story arc was wrapped into the final three chapters. And I was turned right off by the reveal that the holocaust nuclear was caused by the fucking NWO
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Massive Fallout ripoff IMO
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
just about the finish the first of the Planes-Runner series - enjoying it - reminds me a lot of China Mieville
There need to be more good superhero novels
I see what you mean, the Teslapunk Hackney certainly
Just finished Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord, not really scifi more an African fable with fantastical elements, but it could be set on another planet, it's hard to tell.
'The Long Mars' Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett, so far it's the worst of both their styles, lots of telling not much showing, still an intriguing enough and likable enough premise to continue with, don't bother if you didn't like the first two though.
His book "Syrup" is very funny. The film version is jaw-droppingly bad, though. I think Barry wrote the screenplay, too; which makes it even more puzzling. The plot just goes in a completely different direction.
Yeah, I enjoyed those. The prequel is probably the best actually
Tigerman by Nick Harkaway of Gone Away World and Angelmaker fame. Great little story about what it means to be a father, and indeed how fathers need to be superheroes to their kids... Not sure if it's strictly scifi as much as magical realism, but it does have xenobiologists in
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Enjoyed this, low key dystopian novel A Calculated Life
Nick used to post on barbelith as Nick or Dao Jones. Good interesting guy if a woolly liberal.
citydreams
on the road again
Been reading some great new sci-fi from Jeff VanderMeer in his Southern Reach trilogy. It's defitniely a bit on the weird side, but the writing is as ethereal as the the subject matter and much more enjoyable I thought than Chris Beckett's Dark Eden.
Not as recent but, got a good kick out of reading Spin by Robert Wilson. Lacked a bit of the polish but reckon it belongs up there with the SF Masterworks series.
Stone by Adam Roberts was a little bit slow, but good enough that I'm looking forward to reading Bete: "the animal rights movement injected domestic animals with artificial intelligences in bid to have the status of animals realigned by the international court of human rights".
Not sure about Ramez Naam's Crux & Nexus trilogy. Light hearted, and the tech is near enough to make you wonder, but missing the humour of Scalzi and the edge of Morgan.
Just about to start reading The Windup Girl. It's 'cyberpunk without computers' according to Time Magazine. So, gonna be a lot of sex n drugs then
Not as recent but, got a good kick out of reading Spin by Robert Wilson. Lacked a bit of the polish but reckon it belongs up there with the SF Masterworks series.
Stone by Adam Roberts was a little bit slow, but good enough that I'm looking forward to reading Bete: "the animal rights movement injected domestic animals with artificial intelligences in bid to have the status of animals realigned by the international court of human rights".
Not sure about Ramez Naam's Crux & Nexus trilogy. Light hearted, and the tech is near enough to make you wonder, but missing the humour of Scalzi and the edge of Morgan.
Just about to start reading The Windup Girl. It's 'cyberpunk without computers' according to Time Magazine. So, gonna be a lot of sex n drugs then
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
read the Plane-Runner series - enjoyed them, a fantastic sci-fi romp - is there going to be be more?
Surely there must be, he hasn't finished the story it feels like it's just moving into the second act, also MacDonald knows how to write long.
strung out
💩 🤣 🍆 💦 🧐 👻 🐝 🐈⬛
Yes - I've only read the first of these, but it's absolutely fantastic, isn't it? Some of the best new stuff I've read in ages.
Edit: I'm going to hear Jeff VanderMeer in a talk in Bristol soon, with his wife. It should be excellent.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Heres a novella free to read at Tor.com
http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/05/unlocked-an-oral-history-of-hadens-syndrome-john-scalzi
It's the set up novella for Jon Scalzi's (redshirts, Old Mans war) latest 'Locked In'
review here
http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/05/unlocked-an-oral-history-of-hadens-syndrome-john-scalzi
It's the set up novella for Jon Scalzi's (redshirts, Old Mans war) latest 'Locked In'
review here
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
on a side note I did lol at the fact that although nominated the Wheel of Time series failed to win at this years Hugo's. I think everyone including myself was just glad it was over. 14 odd doorstops and I read every one of them
I gave up on Wheel of Time at book 6 Lord of Chaos.
Stupid Deus ex machina endings. Unsympathetic characters.
Pages and pages of filler. Braid tugging and costume. Waste of time.
Give me Steven Erikson, Stephen Donaldson or Tad Williams.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Eriksons currently doing the Kharakanas (sp) series about the origin story of the Tiste Andi, first children of mother dark. First ones a bit depressing tbh, they really do mope and theres no lol humans around to lighten the mood.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
14 VOLUMES? 
a 14 year old kid at my school is on volume 5 of that. We ran out of money for books halfway through last year and so I'm having to get them myself. I should never have agreed to it!
a 14 year old kid at my school is on volume 5 of that. We ran out of money for books halfway through last year and so I'm having to get them myself. I should never have agreed to it!I'll get around to his new series soon. I was hoping it would be good like in Toll the Hounds with Clip and Anomander Rakes children.
Still got a few of the Ian Esslemont books to read too.
There was a lot of that. Robert Jordan broke a chair at a signing at the bookshop I worked. Massive portly chap.
Ex military helicopter pilot if I remember correctly.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
yep, graduate of (iirc) the Citidael Military College
its a lot like that. I found those bits hard going after a while, the extended existential despair of them all- imagine that for a whole book. More of a tragedy than anything. You'll like it if you rated those bits with clip and his chain/rings
I only rated it because a lot of it was from Clip first person. He completely misunderstood Nimander and the other children and their reluctance to fight.
The Martian, Andy Weir, published earlier this year.
Hard scifi. Manned mission to Mars gets into a bit of trouble in a sand storm on the surface. Believed dead, one of the crew is abandoned when the rest are forced to leave whilst they can. Coming round, he realises he's alive but how's he gonna keep it that way.
It's got loads of proper scientific detail as he tries to solve little problems like not starving or dying in vacuum. Some of the characters are a bit off the shelf and look like they were written for film. (It's going to be a film next year apparently.) The sciency bits are great and even though it's mostly one bloke stuck on a barren planet, there's loads of tension.
Hard scifi. Manned mission to Mars gets into a bit of trouble in a sand storm on the surface. Believed dead, one of the crew is abandoned when the rest are forced to leave whilst they can. Coming round, he realises he's alive but how's he gonna keep it that way.
It's got loads of proper scientific detail as he tries to solve little problems like not starving or dying in vacuum. Some of the characters are a bit off the shelf and look like they were written for film. (It's going to be a film next year apparently.) The sciency bits are great and even though it's mostly one bloke stuck on a barren planet, there's loads of tension.
Not read any of his stuff. Was he at the Festival of Ideas thing? I'd have probably gone anyway if I'd noticed. Saw Neal Stevenson at that a couple of years ago.
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