The Sci-Fi Book Thread
- Thread starter Intrinsic
- Start date
-
Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
- 15,445
- 13,907
Finished Three Body 1st book today. I thought it had some really high points and some hugely mediocre parts. Only did the prologue of the 2nd book so far but was really hoping to see it jump ahead 200 years or so and not be focused around the same time period. Hopefully that opinion changes because I really want to enjoy this one as well.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
- 28,279
- 46,145
Well on the Honor Harrington book 10 now (just starting). The editing (most likely OCR) has gotten way worse but the writing has gotten better. The books are getting almost too long now and the subplots are starting to wear, but they aren't long or distracting or irrelevant enough yet to make it a deal breaker. They do all tie together nicely like a Clancy novel but perhaps without the import and panache. There's an almost too obvious amount of dumb shit tossed in the way of the titular character to avoid her just being an absolute Mary Sue or even a Deus Ex Machina and the endless streams of misfortune/idiot people/one dimensional fuck up characters gets a little eye roll worthy.
I guess I'd recommend them in general. The best thing I can say about them is the series has a pretty good handle on its internal physics and ship handling, so the combat is decently evocative and easy to follow. It also skips time when needed well. Other authors would write chapters on nothing happening to build some shit worthless romance or useless sidecar character.
I guess I'd recommend them in general. The best thing I can say about them is the series has a pretty good handle on its internal physics and ship handling, so the combat is decently evocative and easy to follow. It also skips time when needed well. Other authors would write chapters on nothing happening to build some shit worthless romance or useless sidecar character.
Halfway through children of God, sequel to the sparrow from a page ago. 2nd book is pretty interesting so far.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
- 28,279
- 46,145
Read the Black Fleet trilogy by some dude who does stuff. Pretty generic space ship captain sci-fi, the plot twists were "yea ok I guess?" moments where typical sci-fi stuff happens that's "crazy" to the characters but completely expected in the genre.
The writing was ok from a technical standpoint but there was very little evocative about the setting. Too many incompetent fuddy duddy characters in the plot for my taste. I didn't like any of the characters that much as the arcs were a bit too rushed.
Maybe 3/5? I'm not sure I'd recommend them but they're ok if you've run out of other stuff to read. Soured me a bit on reading top anything lists on Amazon to decide my next purchase.
The writing was ok from a technical standpoint but there was very little evocative about the setting. Too many incompetent fuddy duddy characters in the plot for my taste. I didn't like any of the characters that much as the arcs were a bit too rushed.
Maybe 3/5? I'm not sure I'd recommend them but they're ok if you've run out of other stuff to read. Soured me a bit on reading top anything lists on Amazon to decide my next purchase.
While far from being new, I'm quite enjoying Peter F. Hamilton's books, the reality dysfunction series and the one with the second book called Judas Unchained. I'm pretty sure I heard about them in this thread, but if you haven't read those I would recommend them.
Lusiphur
Peasant
- 595
- 47
Sticking to sci-fi from the last few years. In no order of preference.
The Corporation Wars : Dissidence - Ken MacLeod
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen - Lois McMaster Bujold
Nexus Trilogy - Ramez Naam
Zeroes - Chuck Wendig
Seveneves - Neal Stephenson
Slab City Blues (short novellas) - Anthony Ryan
The Peripheral - William Gibson
The Hydrogen Sonata - Iain M Banks
Neptune's Brood - Charles Stross
Luna - Ian McDonald
If you aren't familiar with any of these authors then I recommend checking out their back catalogues as well.
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,448
- 10,614
Seconded. That's the last SF novel (and the penultimate novel) he wrote before cancer. The two drone ships by Space X are named after spaceships in the Culture novels and legions of fans wept when they found out that there wouldn't be any new works in that universe.
Note that when he writes as Iain Banks, it's "non SF" stuff, and Iain M Banks, it's SF. It's sometimes hard to figure out the limit between the two.
It's a sequel to an early novel (Saturn's Children), but a stand-alone work. It's one of those novels that get praise by nobel-prize economists (how does the economy of a non-human galactic-level civilization limited by speed of light works? Answer: with very big scams).
I would recommend anything by Stross, by the way. He writes well, deconstruct most expectations, and his novels are always on hardcover preorder from me.
In particular, you have two major series by him:
The Merchant Princes: A deconstruction of the Parrain's Daughter myth. The core story is that Myriam, freelance economical journalist from Boston, finds that she's able to travel between worlds... and she's the lost heiress to basically one of the six interdimensional Mafia clans. She's of course abducted back to her family. Stuff happens. The multiverse will never be the same.
(can't go further without spoiling)
It's a complicated story; it was originally marketed as fantasy because of contractual obligations; he couldn't write a SF story. So the first 4 books were labeled as fantasy by Tor, the last two jackets say "SF" (but it's really SF from the outset, not some urban fantasy stuff). He intended originally a trilogy, but his US publisher balked at the doorstop first novel, so each book got split in two. The omnibus editions I linked are closer to his original vision.
Caveat: After a 7-year break, he's publishing a new trilogy (of only 3 books, not 3x2...) that has the informal subtitle "Merchant Princes: The Next Generation". First book is coming early next year.
The other ongoing series isThe Laundry Files: Fantasy-SF blend again, based on the premise that Math is Magic (do too much advanced math, invoke extra-dimensional creatures) and H.P. Lovecraft is suspected of having had illegal access to classified information.
(just finished The Nightmare Stacks, his latest book in the series which came out two weeks ago or so. A bit too obvious, though; you know how it's going to unfold and end roughly by the first third of the book. Still enjoyable)
The entire series revolves around agents of the Laundry, a british department tasked with managing magical stuff, as they gear up for the time when The Stars Align and Joe Average becomes capable of opening portals to dimensions best left alone. The main protagonist is "Bob Howard" (a pseudonym, no secret agent will ever give his real name, specially when Real Names have Power), a too curious computer geek that got an offer he can't refuse (join or be executed as threat to the Crown). Features heavy geek humor, with passages like:
As usual, he heavily deconstructs classical tropes, with a good dose of spy novel stuff. It's not often that you see basically the Batmobile being necromantically powered by the bound souls of murdered dolphins.
Series is ongoing, 3 books still planned (after a diversion for the last two books that feature other main protagonists, he'll be back to Bob in his new job, whose title I can't give because spoil).
Eidal
Molten Core Raider
- 2,001
- 213
I'm about a quarter of the way through Dune. I really enjoy it. Is the Dune book really the only one worth reading or are there others in the series worth checking out?
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
- 15,445
- 13,907
I'd be interested to know that as well. For some reason I have a memory hearing that the Frank Herbert stuff was good but that his son's (?) stuff was trash. That could be a false or misunderstanding from years ago though.
Just started the Stross Merchant books at the pool today, not bad so far but only about 10% on. Always liked him from the Saturn / Neptune books and Accelerando. There was another title I read but can't remember the name.
Funkor
Molten Core Raider
- 733
- 618
Frank wrote 6 books in the Dune series, worth checking them all out. The last 2 books got a little silly with the sex dominating ladies that he introduced though.
His son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson teamed up to write a ton of prequels, sequels and even books inserted in between some of the original Dune novels. I read a couple of the prequels after having read all of the originals and got bored of them trying to explain the history of EVERY FUCKING THING that Frank cooked up like the Navigators, Holtzman effect & shields, and so on. So then I switched to one of the later books they wrote and they were still trying to shoehorn in their lame ass robot villain characters. I gave up and never finished any of the rest of them.
Here, let Penny Arcade give you their thoughts on the matter:
Penny Arcade - Comic - Honesty Time
His son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson teamed up to write a ton of prequels, sequels and even books inserted in between some of the original Dune novels. I read a couple of the prequels after having read all of the originals and got bored of them trying to explain the history of EVERY FUCKING THING that Frank cooked up like the Navigators, Holtzman effect & shields, and so on. So then I switched to one of the later books they wrote and they were still trying to shoehorn in their lame ass robot villain characters. I gave up and never finished any of the rest of them.
Here, let Penny Arcade give you their thoughts on the matter:
Penny Arcade - Comic - Honesty Time
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,448
- 10,614
Yep. Anderson writes mostly crap on his own, and Brian should have left his dad's opus alone. The sad part is that they probably sell enough, since the editor keep buying new books.
Re: Honor Harrison
I Believe there are only 1 or 2 books left in the initial Honorverse series timeline. next book is to be published in November (which means i'll read it in august/sept whenver the arc comes out) rumor has it at around 800 pages.
webers next safehold book is almost done as well
then he is helping/working on a travis long book (co-author i think)
then a sword of the south book (bahzell)
also the media rights have supposedly reverted back to david for an honor harrington movie/tv show since the owner of the previous media rights, the company went bankrupt (the company invested heavily in something and it tanked/ate their money)
I Believe there are only 1 or 2 books left in the initial Honorverse series timeline. next book is to be published in November (which means i'll read it in august/sept whenver the arc comes out) rumor has it at around 800 pages.
webers next safehold book is almost done as well
then he is helping/working on a travis long book (co-author i think)
then a sword of the south book (bahzell)
also the media rights have supposedly reverted back to david for an honor harrington movie/tv show since the owner of the previous media rights, the company went bankrupt (the company invested heavily in something and it tanked/ate their money)
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,448
- 10,614
All of the non-main series are co-authored; the Manticore Ascendant is one with Timothy Zahn (of Star Wars Extended Universe fame, but lots of other books; another author I mostly recommend on its own). This is probably a trilogy, so this should be the last book of that series as well.
Show at best. It would be horribly painful to condense any part of the Honorverse into single movies.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
- 28,279
- 46,145
So I started the 'Lost Fleet' series. Apparently the reason the Harrington books do so well is because he's literally the only good author in the 'military space ship fleet sci fi' sub-genre. I mean I won't say the last few books I've read are terrible exactly, but they're just kind of bland and the settings/characters come off as over-wrought rather than well developed.
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,448
- 10,614
Which is why he's at Baen for that. You want good mil-fi, you look at Baen.
My amazon suggestions are littered with space mil-fi from independent authors, all of which are usually terrible. John G. Hemry ("Jack Campbell") is not that bad when you start peeking in the morass that the rest is. I mean, he got editors at Ace convinced enough that his books come out straight in hardcover. Plus The Lost Fleet series (main series, sequel, spin-off) brought him fame enough that they started reprinting all of his previous books.
But otherwise, yea. In the genre, Weber is where you start, and then when you've exhausted him, you move on to slightly lesser offerings.