Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
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The Sci-Fi Book Thread
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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!
Evernothing
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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I'm currently reading Broken Angels by Richard Morgan. It's pretty good, a lot more militaristic and less of a detective noir than Altered Carbon, but good nonetheless.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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About 4 times a year, I delve in indy writing, and I usually end up disappointed, but my Q1 foray was not.
Dungeon Born (The Divine Dungeon book 1) goes into a setting that I absolutely adore: the Dungeon Keeper type games. It's basically Dungeon Keeper, told from the twin perspectives of the Dungeon Heart and one of the adventurers that go daily in it. It embraces completely all the tropes of the DK and CRPG genre with gusto (the "tutorial wisp" telling the DK that no, the dungeon monsters have to be called "mobs", the keeper that only gets an "X" when he tries to discern the level of adventurers more than 3 ranks above it, the local chef telling the adventuring party that getting the mint and garlic that grow at the entrance of the dungeon "is now a daily quest"). It's complete with a goofy leveling system for adventurers (called "cultivators", because they "cultivate their quintessence").
It shouldn't work, but it does somehow. There's some writing problems, notably with Dale (the adventurer) whose persona isn't consistent, and Dani which is too cartoonishly the girlfriend and completely underused. Ignoring completely abilities is also a disappointing plot hole, but I think it's a deliberate choice of the author because he is extremely self-conscious about the tropes he uses.
I can recognize enough of my bias to avoid giving it a warm recommendation, so a cautious one if you have an ebook reader.
Now, waiting for book 2, tentatively scheduled for next month. I wonder what Cal is going to do now that his dungeon includes cats in addition to bunnies. And how it's going to end up with this:
(probably inaccurate. I mean, there's now displacer cats available to kill that mini-rex instead of elemental bunnies with Avenger affix)
Dungeon Born (The Divine Dungeon book 1) goes into a setting that I absolutely adore: the Dungeon Keeper type games. It's basically Dungeon Keeper, told from the twin perspectives of the Dungeon Heart and one of the adventurers that go daily in it. It embraces completely all the tropes of the DK and CRPG genre with gusto (the "tutorial wisp" telling the DK that no, the dungeon monsters have to be called "mobs", the keeper that only gets an "X" when he tries to discern the level of adventurers more than 3 ranks above it, the local chef telling the adventuring party that getting the mint and garlic that grow at the entrance of the dungeon "is now a daily quest"). It's complete with a goofy leveling system for adventurers (called "cultivators", because they "cultivate their quintessence").
It shouldn't work, but it does somehow. There's some writing problems, notably with Dale (the adventurer) whose persona isn't consistent, and Dani which is too cartoonishly the girlfriend and completely underused. Ignoring completely abilities is also a disappointing plot hole, but I think it's a deliberate choice of the author because he is extremely self-conscious about the tropes he uses.
I can recognize enough of my bias to avoid giving it a warm recommendation, so a cautious one if you have an ebook reader.
Now, waiting for book 2, tentatively scheduled for next month. I wonder what Cal is going to do now that his dungeon includes cats in addition to bunnies. And how it's going to end up with this:
(probably inaccurate. I mean, there's now displacer cats available to kill that mini-rex instead of elemental bunnies with Avenger affix)
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Campbell1oo4
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Have you read the original cornerstone of Space Opera; A Princess of Mars?
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Dull
Molten Core Raider
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Yeah I dived into the LitRPG scene which is filled with indy and Russian translates and found mostly shit. I have not read this one though so I will give it a try. As a counteroffer I submit Way of the Shaman, its the only LitRPG book I have found worthy of recommendation. I actually enjoyed it and its subsequent novels quite a bit.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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Strictly speaking, it's not LitRPG; no virtual game/VR world or even portal fantasy. But yea, once I picked that, my suggestion list doubled in size with all sort of virtual world stuff. Noticed your Way of the Shaman, might get a look later.
Another set of novels that came from the suggestion and that I found relatively readable was Demons of Astlan. It's a funny series, based on the idea that the Demons which are summoned by wizards in the fantasy world of Astlan are actually astral travelers that are caught and twisted into the local's idea of demons. The hero is a teenager that smoked a too potent weed during a party, and got caught and made into a Greater Demon. Get a Macguffin (some magically locked book that everyone assumes holds supreme power, but no one ever manages to use). Add a good dose of reverse Occam Razor (given two explanations for something, the most complicated and devious one has to be the true one) so that every flailing becomes a nefarious plot by the demon, and it goes to 11, then crank the silliness to max.
Unfortunately for the series, by book 3, it becomes serious. At that point, the author starts taking his plots too seriously, and reverse the premise. I might still take book 4 when it comes out to see what happens to Tom and Rupert and the gang, but it's probably going to be slightly disappointing. Willing to give it a chance though.
The largest difficulty with the indy scene is that there is no filter to weed out the worst. It's almost like plunging into the slush pile of a publishing house, except you're not paid to do that; you're the one paying.
kaid
Blackwing Lair Raider
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it is not the last book in the series though. It is basically the end of the opening part. There is supposed to be a time skip and then a couple books dealing with the actual hard work of getting rid of the proscriptions and whatever is going on in the temple for the big angelic return after 1000 years. That is still a few decades out book time so its a good point to time skip. Probably picking off with one of caylebs kids being the new main character kinda like calyeb was in the first book.
spronk
FPS noob
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i recently finished the Dark Forest trilogy by Liu Cixin, its translated to english from chinese. Its... different. The first book kinda sucked, the second was pretty good, the third was crazy. Pretty hardcore on the science, its really interesting getting this totally different chinese style of thinking/society/etc, all in all its just so different that it makes it interesting.
also if you haven't read it I'd recommend the Expanse series, pretty simple stuff but its 6 books and now second season on TV and the TV show is (imo) better than the books.
just picked up the stargate atlantis series off a torrent, its 10 books and they are pretty terrible frankly but if you liked the TV show it might be fun to see more adventures of the main cast. I'm sure there are books on SG1, BSG, farscape, etc too
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Has anyone else read any of Nathan Lowells stuff? The Solar Clipper series, and he has a new series after that, plus a new spin off series. That's the kind of shit I wish I could find more of. It's just life in space, no aliens, no wild crazy shit, just good relaxing reading. I really can't find anything like it though
Enzee
Trakanon Raider
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Dunno if anyone else has read the Mither mages series by Orson Scott Card (Gate mage, Lost gate, Gathfather) but i recently finished it. First two books were fun, but the ending of the last one was a bit of a let down. Very anti-climatic how everything gets resolved, imo.
Reading them reminded me I had not quite finished his 'Shadow' series about Bean from Ender's game, so I read the last books in that series. 2nd to last book was fine, same as the others with all the earth based political intrigue and such.. then the last book, with him in space, was so different from the others that I never knew how I felt about it, all the way to the end.
I'm reading Altered Carbon now, based on some past suggestions in this thread. Neuromancer trilogy is one of my favorites of all time, been trying to find something just like it, but other 'cyberpunk' isn't exactly what I want. Snow Crash was fine, but my favorite part of Neuromancer was the very futuristic, 'high tech that borders on being magic' setting and that was set closer to current day.
Also have Daemon sitting on a shelf for when I'm done with Altered Carbon.
Reading them reminded me I had not quite finished his 'Shadow' series about Bean from Ender's game, so I read the last books in that series. 2nd to last book was fine, same as the others with all the earth based political intrigue and such.. then the last book, with him in space, was so different from the others that I never knew how I felt about it, all the way to the end.
I'm reading Altered Carbon now, based on some past suggestions in this thread. Neuromancer trilogy is one of my favorites of all time, been trying to find something just like it, but other 'cyberpunk' isn't exactly what I want. Snow Crash was fine, but my favorite part of Neuromancer was the very futuristic, 'high tech that borders on being magic' setting and that was set closer to current day.
Also have Daemon sitting on a shelf for when I'm done with Altered Carbon.
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I'm reading the Fallen Empire series right now (on book 4) and I really enjoy it. It reminds me a lot of the Firefly show. It's nothing crazy, and the books are relatively short, but it's pretty enjoyable reading. The main character makes tons of bad jokes that are so worth. It's got some romancy stuff but it's not overboard, and it doesn't detract from the story, more just shows character growth. I'd recommend them, at least the first two to see what you think. The first one while a good story has a lot of introductory stuff, the second moves on too more meaty story.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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That's Buroker's series, right?
It's been sitting in my recommended section on Amazon for some time, but I haven't gotten around to get it. I'm still ahead on my goodreads challenge for 2017 (80 books for the year, 17 done already) and have like 20 unread ones on my ereader, plus a dozen on pre-order.
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Yeah. I'm not even sure how I came upon it, every once in a while I just wander Amazon trying to find readable scifi
Brand
Molten Core Raider
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I loved those books...He always reminded me of Modesitt, or McDevitt...Just in the tone and style. Sometimes a story can just be a heroic fantasy/sci-fi and there is no need for anything else.
Anyone read Willful Child, Stephen Erikson's foray into silly sci-fi? My roommate thought I was dying one time because I got the full-on guffaws and busted into my room to check on me.
khorum
Murder Apologist
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Finished everything by Greg Egan and a few others but the best thing I've read in a while is The Circle by Dave Eggers.
It's a near-future dystopia IMO, but it's presented like a silicon-valley googlecult story. It's basically about how a Panopticon Singularity could come from the social media sector and not just with our consent, but with our blessings.
There's a movie coming out with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks playing the Zuckerberg-type figure.
It's a near-future dystopia IMO, but it's presented like a silicon-valley googlecult story. It's basically about how a Panopticon Singularity could come from the social media sector and not just with our consent, but with our blessings.
There's a movie coming out with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks playing the Zuckerberg-type figure.
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Probably already covered, but I just read Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi yesterday. I enjoyed it immensely. I also just started The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. 4 more books after it, but it's Pratchett, so the fun level is high. Still miss that forgetful old bastard.
Valorath
Blackwing Lair Raider
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I read it, thought it was hilarious and entertaining. Made a post about it in the Malazan thread i believe.
I'm not usually the "laugh out loud" type but this book got me on several occasions. Probably about time I revisit it.
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Zapatta
Krugman's Fax Machine
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I enjoyed it, and Scalzi's work in general. I just have to completely ignore the fact he is a fullblown cuck faggot dress wearing try too hard SJW knob gobbler in RL. If he starts injecting his preachy cuntiness into his writing I hope he gets AIDS from dying his hair pink and dies.
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