Cassie - Sci Fi Reading list please

[Cassie]

LISTEN UP PEOPLE OF THE MINE FIELD

I have access to a bunch of e-books again. I haven't had a chance to go through them all yet, but I did see a huge number of fucking James Bond books (for some reason) if any of you are Ian Fleming fans and want some of them, or all of them OR WHATEVER let me know.

I will let you know about the others as soon as I get them sorted. There's some good stuff and lots of SHIT.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I have never read a James Bond book.

I started the Robin Hobb book (Farseer Trilogy) Assassin's Apprentice a while ago. I didn't really get into it right away so I read a (much shorter) book of wrestling reviews (DON'T JUDGE ME) instead to take a break. Then I read another book of wrestling reviews. And another. Maybe I was being unfair because when I went back to Assassin's Apprentice it is quite good and well written. But it's also pretty long and I think GRRM has kind of spoiled a lot of these other fantasy type books by being better than them. It's hard when you know it's going to take months to finish something compared to being able to read lots of shorter books that take just days to finish instead. I don't really know what my point with this is I'm just TALKING I guess.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

I read the first chapter of that book and while it was well written, the idea of reading the same series of books for possibly months on end just didn't appeal. I can't just read one book of a trilogy, then read something completely different. I have to read the whole lot one after another.

I've never read a James Bond novel, so I wouldn't mind giving one a go.

 

[Cassie]

I also see about 7 Michael Crichton books, IF YOU'RE INTERESTED.

These are the James Bond novels that I see so far (let me know which ones you want or if you want all of them and I'll email them to you):

Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Diamonds are Forever
From Russia with Love
Dr. No
Goldfinger
For Your Eyes Only
Thunderball
The Spy Who Loved Me
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
The Man With the Golden Gun

There are a fuckton of Stephen King books here, so I won't list them, but if there are any you want I can check. Also, I've got some Margaret Atwood, oh and Stieg Larsson (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), a few China Mieville... ETC ETC. If you can think of a book by anyone, I can see if I have it, lol.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

On Her Majesty's Secret Service has the highest rating on Goodreads, so I'd like to give that a go.

 

[Cassie]

Alright, sent to your Flox email.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

Thanks a lot. I'll report back!

 

[CaptainWacky]

I read the first chapter of that book and while it was well written, the idea of reading the same series of books for possibly months on end just didn't appeal. I can't just read one book of a trilogy, then read something completely different. I have to read the whole lot one after another.

I've read about 40% now so I can't stop...

 

[Fuddlemiff]

I'm really enjoying I, Robot. Some of the dialogue can be clunky and very dated "sizzling Saturn! Jumping Jupiter!", but other than that it's quite a believable description of how messy and impactful the introduction of robots would be.

 

[CaptainWacky]

The sequels are good too.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

I'm glad I read the 007 book so I know for myself what they're like. The story was decent enough, but I wasn't prepared for how sexist it was going to be. We all know Bonds a slut, but Fleming didn't have the first clue about women. One of the good guys raped a woman and then hunted her down throughout Europe until she gave in and agreed to marry him. One of the good guys. And Bond has nothing but admiration for the guy.

That was one of the best in the series according to fans, so I don't think I'll read any others. Thanks a lot to Cassie for sending me it, though. It's something I can tick off my list.


Just started reading a sample of Ancilliary Justice, but can barely comprehend what's happening. Has any one read the whole book? It got so many awards and good reviews, so I'm tempted to buy it in the hopes it all makes sense eventually. It seems to be written in the vein of Ian Banks, where you're thrown into the future without any explanation of what things are or how things work. Like you should've learnt this stuff in school or something.

Also, I was shocked yesterday to see there's another book in The Expanse series. I'm really behind on those. GRRM is still providing cover quotes, I think because one of the writers was his intern or some such.

 

[CaptainWacky]

GRRM needs to stop reading other books and FINISH THE FUCKING WINDS OF WINTER. I'll get back to The Expanse some day. I think I read the first four. Also is the tv show EVER going to be on because I'm sure I posted a trailer a year ago...

I'm reading Vicious by Victoria Schwab. It's kind of a superhero thing but in a "what if this really happened" way? I'm not far into it but it's good so far and an easy read.

UNLIKE Ancillary Justice which might have been good but I agree that I didn't have a clue what was going on. I read it for the same "it won lots of awards!" reasons but I can't say I enjoyed it much. Maybe I'm just dumb? Maybe everyone just loved the "she" gimmick (every character is called "she" even if you know they're male...for some reason) so much that they thought it deserved great reviews. I don't know.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

I might give Ancilliary Justice a miss for a while then. It's part of a series now too, so I'd be FORCED by my brain to read the second one too.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I think I started to understand what was happening more as I got near the end, but that usually happens.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

I've decided to read Caves of Steel instead and I'm enjoying it without needing a glossary to hand.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Oh, I should have replied "the sequels are good too" to you reading Caves Of Steel, not I, Robot.

 

[CaptainWacky]

So the Puppies didn't win shit at the Hugos. Who Won Science Fiction's Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters | WIRED

 

[Cassie]

OH I was just reading about that. YAY, imo!

 

[Fuddlemiff]

Caves of Steel was really good. Of course there were some silly things, like the heat sticks used for navigation, and a population of 8 billion requiring such huge cities, but I appreciate that scifi isn't actually about predicting anything, but merely asking "what if?" things did end up this way.

All the stuff to do with robots was really vividly described and quite a few of the twists and turns took me by surprised. I'd like to read it again at some point to appreciate the way the guilty party was signposted.

Looking forward to reading the next book as well, but first I'm reading 1984. Yet another book I've seen the movie version of first, so it's kind of annoyingly informing how I picture everything.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I never did finish all the Foundation prequels (but I heard they aren't that good.)