Cassie - Sci Fi Reading list please

[Fuddlemiff]

I've been reading the fourth book for the last six months. It's been a struggle. The others were so good, but this is quite slow and dry and it lacks the interesting characters from previous books. I'm hoping it picks up at some point.

 

[CaptainWacky]

They've all merged into one for me. What happens in the fourth again?

 

[Fuddlemiff]

One of the planets on the other side of the gateway is colonised unofficially (an interesting idea) , but some government psycho is looking for an excuse to murder them all. And only one man can stop him...

 

[CaptainWacky]

Oh yeah I remember that being pretty dull. The next one has bigger plot developments (but I still had problems with it.)

 

[headvoid]

I can recommend Greg Bear - Hull Zero Three (2010)

Greg Bear, probably most famous for Blood Music and Eon (Both of which are excellent) is someone I always look out for. He has a habit of creating worlds that feel real, yet are at the same time quite unbelievable.

Hull Zero Three (Not finished it yet) is about a seed space ship where things have gone wrong. The ship wakes up part of itself (both organic and digital) to deal with this disaster. The world is slowly explained to you and it's compelling and fast paced (even though not loads is happening). Pace is a tricky thing to master and he does it well.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I think I read something he wrote before. I'll add it to the mental list.

 

[Cassie]

I am reading Consider Phlebas now. I found it just sitting there inside my ipad waiting for me. I forgot I put iBooks on it!

 

[headvoid]

Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Recent winner of Arthur C Clarke award this is a rather odd evolutionary tale involving fuckin big spiders. Basically, humans destroyed themselves, tried to take over a planet with evolutionary DNA, monkeys didn't survive, spiders took over. Pretty horrible read if you are not a big fan of the hairy buggers using their "palps" to communicate and eating each other.

Humans come along every so often after being in deep cryogenic sleep, try and fuck things up for the spiders.

Clever, but I guess you are supposed to root for the spiders eventually, and I never did.

Well written, massive imagination, well researched book but FUCKING SPIDERS.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Sounds good. I, for one, welcome our new spider overlords.

I'm reading the fifth Laundry book because I forgot to read it before, then I'll read the sixth (and I think the seventh is out soon.)

Fifth one was good if a bit repititive (he seemed to keep repeating information the reader already knew every time a new character discovered it, which I thought was a waste of space.) Sixth wasn't good. It took a weird turn with super heroes showing up. Didn't feel like a Laundry novel as much? There was also a really stupid bit with Boris Johnson. It's weird, even though I agree with the author's politics I find it a bit cringey when writers start talking about the EVIL TORIES WANTING TO KILL THE POOR? Seventh was much better though with a pretty epic scope!

 

[headvoid]

Neil Stephenson - Seveneves
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveneves

Fuck me, this is a good book. The writer of Snow Crash has delivered an extraordinary book. Some criticisms of it being "An engineering manual in space" because of the depth of technical detail involved. This is about as hard science fiction as most average readers can take. It is, however, a compulsive page turner that feels a lot like a book version of Apollo 13 and the Sandra Bullock "Space" movie.

Basic plot is that the moon is exploded into many pieces, everyone is looking at the wonderful lunar show but they suddenly realise that there is about 2 years before the moon turns into asteroids and lands on earth destroying everything and everyone. This process will last 5000 years. Bit of a downer. There then follows a frantic space programme designed to get as many people up into space to survive.

At first the science is a little bewildering but the fact it is set in near future allows you to be brought along. There is an Elon Musk type character, one of the other main characters is basically Neil DeGrasse Tyson (Dr Doob). This gives you quite a convenient frame of reference in amongst the apogees and perigrees.

Fantastic book.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I thought of buying that but I think the Amazon reviews put me off becasue people were saying "big Stevenson fan BUT THIS WAS BAD" so now I don't know!

 

[Volpone]

Don't remember if I've said it before but:
"Ender's Game."
"Dune." (but none of the sequels of either of these)
"Starship Troopers."
Maybe the novelization of "Star Wars." It's interesting how some of the characterization is just a bit different--and how C3P0 is a bit more of a used car salesman.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Cassie will tell you which Dune sequels to read.

 

[Cassie]

Only the ones written by FRANK HERBERT

Some people do not like any of the Dune novels except Dune. I like the first 4 a lot, but not so much the last 2. I like Miles Teg and Odrade, but I think FH got the horn and was a bit too weird about all the sex in the last 2. Every time I think about it, I wonder about the saliva smell of sex. lol

I love Ender's Game! also, I enjoyed the sequels (that I have read).

 

[CaptainWacky]

Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Recent winner of Arthur C Clarke award this is a rather odd evolutionary tale involving fuckin big spiders. Basically, humans destroyed themselves, tried to take over a planet with evolutionary DNA, monkeys didn't survive, spiders took over. Pretty horrible read if you are not a big fan of the hairy buggers using their "palps" to communicate and eating each other.

Humans come along every so often after being in deep cryogenic sleep, try and fuck things up for the spiders.

Clever, but I guess you are supposed to root for the spiders eventually, and I never did.

Well written, massive imagination, well researched book but FUCKING SPIDERS.

I'm reading this now it's good.

 

[gturner]

There's been some very good science fiction coming out of parts of the Arab world and North Africa. People there have been confronting terrorism, crackdowns, propaganda, rationing, and all sorts of horrible things, and to criticize such things, to describe their daily life honestly, would invite a government crackdown or assaults by crazy clerics. But they can cast such events in a future world, changing all the names and locations and particulars, to get to deeper questions.

It sounds intriguing because it wouldn't be the usual kind of sci-fi, an extrapolation from Western society with air cars and laser pistols.

 

[Ancalagon]

The Postman by David Brin. Same basic idea as the movie, but much more social commentary. I also liked the Uplift series by Brin. The first one is a bit like the Hobbit, a one off that establishes the universe (and one of the main characters in later book's is a descendant) but still quite good.

 

[Volpone]

"The Postman" came out back in the day when I used to get the occasional "Starlog" at the newsstand and I read a blurb in it on it. Sounded good, so I was disappointed that post-"Dances With Wolves" Costner got his hands on it.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

I've been reading "Story of Your Life", the set of short stories that the movie Arrival is drawn from. They've all been pretty good so far. It's a very technical style of writing that makes the author seeming like an expert on pretty much everything.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Apparently there's a new Expanse book out so I guess I'll read that even though I found the last couple a bit weak.