Science Fiction : search and destroy

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.

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

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

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

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

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

being able to get sample chapters on kindle owns so hard

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.

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

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

this plot description is hilarious

the books are v funny

thanks for all the great recs dudes

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

swanwick owns

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

OK, went for the $1.99 AJ

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

satisfyingly

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.

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

i did

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett was very good.

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

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

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

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

Because you live in a Francophone town?

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

Oh what's the Lake Folks about

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

!!!!

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/canadian_aliens1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p0chD8U8fA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYm1Yo5D-bA

dug those southern reach books!!!

are dude's other books that good? was a little alarmed that he also wrote like the idiot's guide to steampunk or something

just started aj. not as immediately drawn in as i was with the SR books but so far so good.

Time Out London sf film poll of pros/experts... Duncan Jones' Moon joins the Insanely Overrated club.

http://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-100-best-sci-fi-movies

I've read 2/3 of the second Southern Reach book, very slowly. Hard to explain why, because it's in many ways similar, but I like it about 1/100 as much as Annihilation, which I really enjoyed. Am finishing it only because I am holding out hope for #3 to be good.

Duncan Jones' Moon joins the Insanely Overrated club

Moon is ok but it's pretty minor. feel like it must get this shine cuz there just aren't that many workmanlike, non-blockbuster-y sci-fi things getting made.

(list is utter garbage btw)

Couple of things on there that I've never heard of that sound interesting, which is kind of the point of lists like this for me.

yeah there's some randomly intriguing entries

World on a Wire sounds cool for example, anyone seen it?

Or 'Seconds'?

Both amazing, must-see films (and I hate Fassbinder)

seconds is so great