I’m currently reading the Wool omnibus by Hugh Howey. It’s pretty decent I’ve been making very rapid progress as it’s been too hot to sleep here recently now the summer has arrived.
I haven’t seen the Apple show, but maybe I’ll watch it in the future when I’ve finished all the books (I had Shift and Dust as well).
Currently reading Foundation and Earth by Asimov, I absolutely loved the original trilogy so I’ve been reading through the sequels and plan on going back to the prequels after. In my opinion the sequels have a big shift in pacing and sort of the way that the plot develops… not sure how I feel about that. On one hand it is easier to keep up with with less characters, but on the other it feels like the scale of things is much smaller. Trying to not spoil anything. The series is a fantastic read nevertheless!
I’ve only read the original Foundation trilogy, would you recommend the others?
Difficult to say. If you keep in mind, that he wrote the sequels 30 years or so later and acknowledge that one’s views change over such a period, then go ahead. If you, however, expect the same flavor as the trilogy, then I wouldn’t recommend reading foundation’s edge and foundation and earth. And although these are meant as an introduction to the men behind time, that one makes no reference to the foundation trilogy. So it’s fine to just read the end of eternity on its own.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Was a recommendation on the R site.
Complex, eon spanning, hard sci-fi. I’m loving it!
If you could, what other sci-fi works would you compare it to? I am wrapping up the Children of Time series and could use something else.
I sold Seveneves to a friend by saying it is like Neal Stephenson wrote The Martian. Well, at least the first 2/3 of it. It talks a lot about the science how how an event like the one described in the book might happen but with the kind if granularity and verbosity you would expect from NS.
Working on The Name of the Wind and then next up is Death’s End.
I’m so so sorry. Name of the Wind is brilliant. The sequel is decent. But I’ve given up hope for the series to ever be completed.
Whatcha sorry about? Does the book end on a cliffhanger or something? Or can I get away with just reading the first one?
Well, I adored Name of the Wind. It’s a great read. But like I said, I’ve given up hope for that series. I don’t believe that the author will ever finish it. I really hate unfinished stories, especially one like this that feels only half-written (yes, half, with 2 out of 3 books written!). So I’m sorry for your sake, that you’ve gotten sucked into an unfinished tale.
Ah, that’s a bummer. I’m definitely enjoying it this far but I’m invested in enough other series/stories that I’ll probably feel ok putting this one on the shelf. Similar to GoT, I enjoyed what I read (all that’s been released in the main series) and have since moved on. If another book does come out, awesome! If not, oh well.
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Wild book. 3rd in the series. Not finished yet but the first two were incredible.
Just started reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
I’m rereading Asimov’s complete saga in “internal story chronological order”:
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I, Robot / The Complete Robot (except ‘Mirror Image’!) [ROBOTS]
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The Caves of Steel [ROBOTS]
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The Naked Sun [ROBOTS]
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Mirror Image (short story) [ROBOTS]
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The Robots of Dawn [ROBOTS]
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Robots and Empire [ROBOTS]
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The Stars, Like Dust-- [EMPIRE]
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The Currents of Space [EMPIRE]
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Pebble in the Sky [EMPIRE]
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Prelude to Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Forward the Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation and Empire [FOUNDATION]
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Second Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation’s Edge [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation and Earth [FOUNDATION]
I’m currently on “Forward the foundation”
I’m surprised The Caves of Steel is so early as it seemed really futuristic compared to most of The Complete Robot, but I read it a long time ago so maybe I’m not remembering correctly.
The Foundation series is absolutely amazing, and I am jealous of you if this is your first reading. One of my formative series growing up. You’re inspiring me to do the whole Asimov read through like your doing, because I don’t believe I ever read the Empire books and never read Robot beyond I, Robot.
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Just started “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisen. It took a minute for me to get my bearings, but I’m really digging the concept
Seems to be the general flow of her writing style. Broken Earth certainly doesn’t hold your hand, either, but if you stick it out through the directionless lost feeling at the start, suddenly you’re hooked.
N.K. Jemisen is one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy writers. If you like her style and world building I’d highly recommend the Broken Earth trilogy.
It took me quite some time to get past the rocky (hah) start, the absolute lack of all but the barest exposition, but once I did…wow.
And I recognize the talent and skill it takes to make that work. Very risky to do, but it damn sure paid off.
I’m currently nostalgia-reading Robert Rankin’s Dance Of The Voodoo Handbag but that’s more far fetched fiction than sci-fi. Silly, entertaining and lots of tall tales. I’m also reading The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken. I was hoping for it to be the start of a good series of books to read over the summer but it’s not very good. I will probably not bother with the rest of the series.
Surface Detail, and The State of the Art by Iain M Banks. Been on a Culture bend recently. Excession is next on my list
I am reading currently Snow Crash. A great example how pioneers of a genre seem to lose their originality over time, but the book hasn’t changed, everyone else has just copied it to death.
Previously I read some if the Culture series and got surprised by the genuine atrocities popping up in them. The books were interesting and the horrible things had a reason to be there, but I just became overwhelmed.
I’m really trying to read Three Body Problem, but I’m having a hard time following
There is a YouTube series that has adapted the book really well amazing https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMX26aiIvX5rFSYPXtcqda3tWd6pGVD5Q
Stick with it. I loved the series, but the first book is unfortunately the most confusing and, in my opinion, the worst of the three.
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. I’m about 3/4 of the way through, and it’s been very interesting thus far! Definitely has not gone where I thought it was gonna go, which is cool.
If you haven’t read it I won’t give any spoilers, but I was fascinated by the similarities to The Expanse in the beginning. They definitely go different places, but I can feel Reynolds influence on James Corey. Surprised I haven’t seen anybody mention this before.
Anyways, I read House of Suns before this and probably like that more, but Pushing Ice is quite good. Should I start the Revelation Space series next?
very minor spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read
i read pushing ice with my book club recently. was also not expecting things to go where they went but i really enjoyed the direction. it makes for a very fleshed out ‘sailors marooned on a deserted island’ kind of story that doesn’t waste the possibilities it’s genre and setting allow it. janus as a setting just has a lot of great mysteries and the way the crew interact and survive on the planet is explored very thoroughly. the isolation of how hopelessly far they are from home and only getting further struck me when i was reading. you can understand the different factions and how things might have been different if only a few things changed in the beginning.
and as far as sci-fi goes, it’s version of it is a favorite of mine. the blue-collar worker in space is something i’ve always liked, and it gets depicted very well in this book. would love to hear what you think once you’ve finished it.
Just finished! Not as strong as House of Suns, but I quite liked it. There are some super solid sci-fi concepts, but some of the characters are just so unlikable.
Spoilers below
I really struggled with Svetlana specifically and how long she held her grudge! That exile! So many years! Intense. I was hoping for a bit more of a twist with the Fountain Heads, but then again them being essentially good and telling the truth is a bit of a twist because you sort of expect the alien betrayal! It feels like he set up the story for a sequel with that teaser about the middle of the structure and all. Hope Reynolds revisits this world soon.
svetlana was a character that i had mixed feelings about. i think the book did a good job of establishing the mounting dread of the situation rockhopper was in leading to their landing on janus, so i felt like i could empathize with her and her team’s sentiments to a point. but as it goes on and on and she remains the most petty person, especially with so much at stake, it was really over zealous. especially when she had parry as a voice of reason just to ignore. it doesn’t help that in every given opportunity bella is always more fair and measured in every action. no competition at all for who’s taking the gold in holding a grudge. i have to say though i couldn’t help but laugh when there was so much effort gathering and informing everyone to absolutely, under no circumstances, even utter as little as a single word to the musk dogs, followed by direct video feed of svetlana going to go make contact with the musk dogs, comedy.
as for the fountain heads i really enjoyed their earnestness. their complete lack of nefarious intentions was a fun play on expectations, like you said, and mckinley is just one of my favorite dudes.
i think the concept of the structure and the idea of this timeless, universal zoo was really cool and interesting, much more than i was anticipating from the concept at first. the way the time gets played with is something i really loved in the story. connecting bella’s final broadcast as the benefactor sparking the greatest civilization in human history, ultimately tying back to garrison, the lock of hair, and the cube as, in a way, his final parting gift, thrown through all of time and space for her, really hit me when it all got brought together towards the end. it really added an important piece of humanity and sentimentality to the unimaginably vast journey bella and the crew goes on.
i’m glad you enjoyed it. i actually haven’t read any other reynolds but i did look a bit into house of suns when i was going through his catalogue before ultimately choosing to read pushing ice, i guess i’ll have to give it a read.
Totally agree, I understood where Svetlana was coming from, but after 13 years I was like, come on!
Also, this is probably particular to the audiobook, but I was frustrated at times by the way the author would switch scenes quickly. In the audiobook there was no pause or anything, and it was disorienting a few times. Made things a bit dream like. I assume in text there would be a break of some kind. The audiobook should have had more pauses.
Anyways, I look forward to hearing what you think of House of Suns! If you liked the time dilation and whatnot in this one you’ll love it! And that’s all I’ll say about that.
Wool was great. And the show was good too. You can basically watch the first season after finishing Wool, if you’d like.
I’m reading He Who Fights With Monsters but I’m going to dig through this thread and find a good scifi novel to read next!
I just started HWFWM and it’s my first LitRPG. Very different from what I’m used to reading but I really like so far. Going to try and finish it before I start Brandon Sanderson secret novel #3
It was my first LitRPG too. I wasn’t sure I’d like it but I do. I’m on the 3rd book, actually.
I haven’t read anything by Sanderson yet but I follow him on social media and I really like him.
I started this book series that begins with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. It’s a space sci-fi series and the author did a great job with creating different societies and species and thinking about things like different methods of speech and communication, mobility, how do multi-species societies work, etc. But she did a good job of focusing less on the world building with a focus on how the characters navigate the world and situations they’re in.
One of the author’s parents worked for NASA as an astrophysicist or something, the other was a biologist, and she’s a huge DnD nerd, so that all seems to check out haha.
I really recommend the series.
I listened to the 2nd and 3rd books of the Murderbot series on a car ride recently. I had read them before, but it was the first time that he did. I really enjoyed laughing with him.
