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Cassie - Sci Fi Reading list please

I have Polaris (Jack McDevitt) and Seeds of Earth on order from the Library. I will update when I finish them.
 
Seeds of Earth seems like a fairly typical story of three seed ships sent out from a dying Earth, but what looks interesting is that it's a trilogy, with each book being about one of the ships. And presumably there's something that ties them all together.
 
I finished The Crow Road last night. I really REALLY liked it a lot. It's just the kind of story that I can relate to and think about.

Next up is The Player of Games!
 
I'm starting on Leviathan Wakes tomorrow so I'll give you all my verdict. Well, ok, I had a read of the first few pages and I'm a bit bothered by the editing (speech without speech marks? It just irks me.), but I haven't read enough to really judge the prose.
 
I'm reading The Hunger Games. I AM IMPRESSED. It's really good to read, you get all caught up in it and don't even realize a couple hours have DISAPPEARED. My only complaint is that it is written in 1st person, which isn't my favorite and always takes awhile for me to get used to.
 
I'm enjoying Leviathan Wakes, but slightly disillusioned to find that "James S. A. Corey" is the pen name of two writers who collaborated on the book. I knew individuals used pen names and that sometimes someone like Katie Price will secretly write a book for a far more famous person to give them a helping hand, but collabs under a single name were news to me. I'm not really clear on the advantage of adopting a third, fictitious name.
 
Pardon me since I haven't read the rest of this thread but I recently started the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Seems legit so far. Any non-spoilerish opinions?
 
Sausageman and I have read the trilogy (and there's also a sort of companion book called "The Martians", which has extra background and alternate histories, but I've not read that).

If you've read up to the part where they touchdown on Mars, then I guess you're comfortable with the science porn. Personally, I found it slowed the story down far too much, particularly as one description of a mesa or a plateau or another bloody area of megaregolith is very much like another, at least in this non-geologist's opinion. In the second two books the science porn makes way for politics porn, which I found more interesting as it was a bit more practical and I kind of felt like I was learning something.

It is a really good trilogy, though. Lots of unusual ideas, big science projects and questions that will make you think. The characters are very varied and engaging, and KSR has a fantastic knack of making you really admire someone, only to show them from another character's PoV to be full of faults that, quite naturally, the first person view hadn't acknowledged. I can still remember the moment that a character casually dropped into conversation that one of my favourites was a sex pest. "Wait... Whaaaaat?"
 
Ishcabittle said:
YES. read that shit. the great-granddaddy of all they cyberpunk genre, if you dig "jacking in" or any of that wet-wear madness you will really get off on it. characters are solid, the plot is crazy good, and keeps you guessing.

go for "snowcrash" by Neal Stephenson if you dig Neuromancer, it's the same kinda thing but a little more technical.

also:

Postsingular, Rudy Rucker (excellent sci-fi with a spiritual twist on top)
Ventus, Karl Schroeder (feels more fantasy at first, then gets really sci-fi)
Accelerando, Charles Stross (epic, almost too much to imagine at times)
Click to expand...

I was in the process of deciding what to read next and decided to reread this thread and I'm so glad I did, because I was looking through my e book files and WHAT DO I SEE? Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash!

Since we started talking about all these good things to read, I've read all of Gibson's Sprawl series, and several of Charles Stross' novels including Accelerando. Cyberpunk is definitely something I love, but also something I have to be in the mood for. I think I might be in the mood for some RIGHT NOW. I also have Gibson's Pattern Recognition, and I might read that before Snow Crash.
 
I found Jack McDevitt (Polaris) completely underwhelming.

A really interesting twist on the "ghost ship" beginning followed by a by the numbers space detective thing. Avoid.

I may have to stump up some cash again rather than rely on my library.
 
I remember Accelerando not having a proper ending or something? Wasn't it a free book he published as a serial on his website or something? Why do I keep saying or something?
 
He released it digitally for free. You can still download the e book, I think. I don't actually remember how it ended.

ALSO, I decided to read Snow Crash. It's crazy... the mafia is in the pizza business! Delivering a pizza in less than 30 minutes is more important than your life! Still don't know what "snow crash" actually is, but Da5id just tried it.
 
I am really liking Snow Crash. It took about 100 pages for me to feel really INTO it, which is kind of a lot, but I was liking it from the beginning, I just wasn't always sure wtf was going on.
 
Alright, I'm reading Pattern Recognition now. I'm not really liking it very much. The main character is annoyingly neurotic and hard to connect with. The writing style doesn't flow, and for some very annoying reason they decided to use very tiny print for the emails sent to the main character. Fortunately I can change the font size easily so I don't have to get out the magnifying glass :rwmad:

I'm about 110 pages into the novel, and can honestly say that I do not recommend it. Of course other people probably love it, but they are JERKFACES.
 
Is that the William Gibson book? To be honest I didn't really love the book of his I read before (Neuromancer?) but didn't say so because Headvoid or something loved it.
 
Yeah, it's the same author. I liked Neuromancer and the rest of the Sprawl trilogy, even though the writing was hard to follow at times. Pattern Recognition isn't as hard to follow as Neuromancer, it's not so dystopian and disjointed, but it's hard to care about what happens next. At least in Neuromancer I cared about what was going to happen so I was glad to keep reading. I guess I'm just not as interested in the subject matter of Pattern Recognition, which is marketing. MAYBE headvoid would like it for that reason, but I think he might even be disappointed in it, since it relies on the main character's weird sensitivity to logos... some logos make her physically ill, like the Michelin Man makes her dizzy and nauseous. Tommy Hilfiger's logos incapacitate her!
 
I'm glad to say that the book does get better! The beginning was slow, I guess. I should have a little more patience. Lots of Russian spy stuff, and other weirdness, makes the book more interesting.
 
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