Science Fiction : search and destroy

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (314 of them)

I like, just finished fall of hyperion after what I guess was 8 months? I still don' tknow how I felt about it. It seems like those two books could have been half as long and still gotten their point across, kind of. I dunno, I was disappointed in the end. Not sure whether to embark on empyrion, since it took me forever and two attempts to do the hyperion books. maybe I should read something else.

akm, Friday, 10 January 2014 04:06 (ten years ago) link

six months pass...

recommend me something.

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:42 (nine years ago) link

book or movie

Οὖτις, Monday, 14 July 2014 21:43 (nine years ago) link

oh book please.

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:44 (nine years ago) link

fantasy okay too.

i have a trip to the lake coming up.

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:44 (nine years ago) link

Inverted World. But maybe you already

I Need Andmoreagain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:45 (nine years ago) link

Or better yet, The Adjacent

I Need Andmoreagain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:45 (nine years ago) link

i already inverted. what's the adjacent? same author?

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:46 (nine years ago) link

Yes, his latest and greatest

I Need Andmoreagain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:47 (nine years ago) link

oh that looks cool.

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 21:47 (nine years ago) link

Jon Armstrong's "Thread" and "Grey" are my go-to recommendations for recent quality sci-fi.

Οὖτις, Monday, 14 July 2014 21:54 (nine years ago) link

maybe obv but the tiptree collectin "her smoke rose up" is unbelievably good

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:02 (nine years ago) link

the new vandermeer books are great beach reads too though very "written to be turned into a tv show"

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:02 (nine years ago) link

oh man and ann leckie's ANCILLARY JUSTICE, which is so good

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:02 (nine years ago) link

*takes notes*

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:03 (nine years ago) link

this plot description is hilarious

For Michael Rivers, life is perfect. He is tall, handsome and worshipped by billions of fans around the globe. He is wealthy beyond measure, the heir apparent to one of the high-tech corporations that controls the world. He is fashionable, setting trends with his wardrobe of immaculate designer suits. And Michael is in love with Nora, his beautiful, witty and equally perfect fiancée. When an assassin's bullets pierce Michael's body before the cameras at a press junket, everything changes. Forcibly separated from Nora, his illusions shattered, Michael seeks to uncover the reasons behind the attempted assassination. Michael delves deep into his past, finding that all paths lead to a time when he was the golden boy, dancing furiously to the beat of notorious all-night Rage parties thrown by his father.

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:04 (nine years ago) link

i finally got around to 'accelerando' too and ended up liking it a lot, or at least the middle third

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:06 (nine years ago) link

People on this borad loving them some Ancillary Justice. Tempted to give it a try but afraid it will turn out to be some Album of the Decade Big and Rich stuff.

I Need Andmoreagain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link

this is not sci fi, quite, or maybe it is, but its really great

http://www.amazon.com/The-Revolutions-Felix-Gilman/dp/0765337177

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link

ancillary justice on kindle sale for $1.99 so that's tight

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link

can't remember if i read accelerando, i did read a bunch of his other stuff

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:08 (nine years ago) link

yeah idk, im not sure id unreservedly recommend it but its got a lot of cool ideas

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:09 (nine years ago) link

being able to get sample chapters on kindle owns so hard

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:09 (nine years ago) link

An oldie I like to push on anyone who hasn't read it is Michael Swanwick - The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Kind of a science-debased fantasy, IDK, fucking amazing.

Neil Sekada (Jon Lewis), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:09 (nine years ago) link

I wish I could combine Priest's plots & ideas with Vandermeer's prose. 'The Adjacent' is great though (just so happens I read it sandwiched in between the Southern Reach books).

xp

festival culture (Jordan), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:10 (nine years ago) link

have gilman on my todo list already, he was on sale in the Nook store one day.

Neil Sekada (Jon Lewis), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:10 (nine years ago) link

this plot description is hilarious

the books are v funny

Οὖτις, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:10 (nine years ago) link

thanks for all the great recs dudes

socki (s1ocki), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:11 (nine years ago) link

gilman's two half-made world books are also great

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:12 (nine years ago) link

swanwick owns

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:12 (nine years ago) link

Jordan didn't you just the other day recommend some relevant stuff on other thread?

OK, went for the $1.99 AJ

I Need Andmoreagain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:13 (nine years ago) link

aj ends badly but is worth it. i mean idk the last time i read a sci fi book that ended satisfactorily

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:14 (nine years ago) link

satisfyingly

max, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:14 (nine years ago) link

I read Marcel Theroux's 'Strange Bodies' and 'Far North' recently, one's a cool modern-day body-switching story (kinda, but I don't want to give anything away) and the other is straight post-apocalyptic survival in Siberia. His sentence-level writing is reaally good and he has that rarest of qualities, he's fucking good at endings.

festival culture (Jordan), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:16 (nine years ago) link

i p much forgive all writers all their shitty endings forever, it's just the way fiction is most of the time.

before you die you see the rink (Jon Lewis), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:17 (nine years ago) link

i did

festival culture (Jordan), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:17 (nine years ago) link

Max that was a coincidental xpost (re: ending books), but for real though.

festival culture (Jordan), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:18 (nine years ago) link

Seconding The Iron Dragon's Daughter -- loved that one.

it's not rocker science (WilliamC), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:35 (nine years ago) link

way upthread, but i'm not sure i agree that vandermeer's new books would be tv-able. also, legal would have to settle with the creators of myst before moving to production.

moonstone (soda), Monday, 14 July 2014 22:39 (nine years ago) link

Pick it up, try the Open At Random Test:
It was as though he were a beggar or deformed, but in that case they would have at least looked away, which was some sort of recognition. Yes, I think I'll read Disch's Echo Round His Bones. A little more skimming confirms It's one of his early novels (1969), but undoubtedly his.

dow, Monday, 14 July 2014 22:44 (nine years ago) link

I can't say that Echo Round His Bones is a good book. It is unlike any other science fiction book I've ever read, and for what it is it is well-written and the prose is solid, but the concept that underlies the whole thing is so random and essentially uninteresting (primarily because it has absolutely no bearing on anything relevant to actual life) that it really feels like a pointless exercise. Every other single thing I've read by him has been way better.

Οὖτις, Monday, 14 July 2014 23:00 (nine years ago) link

if it's an allegory for something it completely passed me by

Οὖτις, Monday, 14 July 2014 23:00 (nine years ago) link

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett was very good.

the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Tuesday, 15 July 2014 06:09 (nine years ago) link

way upthread, but i'm not sure i agree that vandermeer's new books would be tv-able. also, legal would have to settle with the creators of myst before moving to production.

― moonstone (soda), Monday, July 14, 2014 6:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not easy, but the structure and plot just give off "film rights bidding war" vibe

max, Tuesday, 15 July 2014 10:49 (nine years ago) link

i already inverted. what's the adjacent? same author?

In fact was his birthday yesterday, if that makes any difference.

aj ends badly but is worth it. i mean idk the last time i read a sci fi book that ended satisfactorily

If it makes it all the way to the end until it goes bad that's a pretty good accomplishment

I Need Andmoreagain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 15 July 2014 11:16 (nine years ago) link

the fact that it was his birthday makes a HUGE difference.

socki (s1ocki), Tuesday, 15 July 2014 14:02 (nine years ago) link

Because you live in a Francophone town?

I Need Andmoreagain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 15 July 2014 14:17 (nine years ago) link

grabbed the sample of vandermeer's annihilation last night, immediately dug it, bought it and the next one. also have ancillary justice, and samples of two gilmans (revolutions and 1/2-made world) and the adjacent.

also, the two books i'm supposed to be reading for work/research purposes.

i believe i am ready for the lake folks

socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 16 July 2014 18:15 (nine years ago) link

Oh what's the Lake Folks about

Quinoa Phoenix (latebloomer), Wednesday, 16 July 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link

it's not a book you numskull, i'm talking about the sci-fi-loving naiads who live in our lake and who demand stories from their human visitors

socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 16 July 2014 19:15 (nine years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.