The Killer Snark Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Datepalm - I don't tend to read space opera at all, so I'm going with Ringworld, whether you like it or not. :devil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 You're breaking my heart here, kid. It's a perfectly fine subgenre, and deserves to be better represented than Ringworld. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Killer Snark Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 If it makes you feel any better, then, I have Cities in Flight on my reading list, but I'll have to add it to my Gollancz SF Masterworks collection first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 You could even try a little more recent than that! Hyperion, The Culture, Revelation Space...there have been good books written since 1970. I swear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Some examples: Blindsight by Peter Watts - Loved this book, anything similar is an instant-win for me. If it's not been mentioned yet, you'll be excited to hear about the next book in the Blindsight universe,finally due in August this year.http://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/076532802X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394984649&sr=1-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 If it makes you feel any better, then, I have Cities in Flight on my reading list, but I'll have to add it to my Gollancz SF Masterworks collection first. There's a name I haven't come across in years. James Blish did write great space opera, but in the end it was just space opera. If space opera is what you want, try Jack Williamson's Legion Of Space series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 If it makes you feel any better, then, I have Cities in Flight on my reading list, but I'll have to add it to my Gollancz SF Masterworks collection first. You'll probably like it. I thought that it might not have been quite as painfully dated as Ringworld was, but it got close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 You're not a very helpful person by nature, are you? Well, no. I am an angry old troll. But here is a helpful hint: scifi awatds don't mean shit. Also seeL Last 4 or 5 years of Hugos. Fuck, I don't think Banks ever won a single award in his lifetime. No hugo at least. I should look that shit up. Good idea, me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Fortune's Pawn sounds an awful like a run-of-the-mill pulp Scifi novel. What sets it apart? It is pulpy, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing because it is well written. For your purposes though, what sets it apart is that there is just an abundance of mystery (and the main character exploring those mysteries). Bach is also not one to drag out the mystery when it logically should be explained as too many authors are wont to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbcooper Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 If it's not been mentioned yet, you'll be excited to hear about the next book in the Blindsight universe,finally due in August this year.http://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/076532802X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394984649&sr=1-1 Fuck. Yes. This gives me further reason to finish my time machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 It is pulpy, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing because it is well written. For your purposes though, what sets it apart is that there is just an abundance of mystery (and the main character exploring those mysteries). Bach is also not one to drag out the mystery when it logically should be explained as too many authors are wont to do.Reading it now. Digging it. Kinda clunky in the beginning as a set up, but td starting to get its legs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Fuck, I don't think Banks ever won a single award in his lifetime. No hugo at least. I should look that shit up. Good idea, me. Apparently he won the British Science Fiction Association Award a couple of times and some German and Italian SF awards but nothing for the 'biggest' SF awards like the Hugo or Nebula. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Reading it now. Digging it. Kinda clunky in the beginning as a set up, but td starting to get its legs. Yeah, up until she's gets on the ship. That completely slipped my mind, at least it was a pretty short section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbcooper Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 Well REG you haven't steered me wrong in the past, I'll give Fortune's Pawn a shot. Thanks. I've gotten about 4-5 good prospects out of this thread, thanks everyone. Though imo a to-read list can never be too long so any more suggestions are welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Yeah, up until she's gets on the ship. That completely slipped my mind, at least it was a pretty short section. It's getting good. I need something to wire brush my mind after the pile of dogshit that was WoR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Words of Radiance? Why are you reading that? I thought I could count on you, at least, not to give in to every bit of sentimental nostalgia that hits this forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Killer Snark Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Speaking of nostalgia, as a fan, one never hears of John Wyndham being brought up on these forums. The Kraken Wakes is pretty patchy, though it works better as a novel than War of the Worlds, which is turgidly unreadable between the opening chapters and those at the end. The Day of the Triffids is an excellent book, and The Chrysalids even better. He went through a period of being more or less dismissed because of his favouring of prospective social commentary over either explicit soft or hard sci-fi leanings, but he's still quietly one of the finest genre writers Britain has produced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Damn, finally read through this thread and see I missed a discussion of Faith. I loved that book, if I ignore the pointless beginning and the 'oh wait this is sci-fi time to get weird' ending. But the middle part, damn that was good. And Peter, I am glad you are enjoying Bach because she is awesome. But I do feel I have to point out that she apologetically ripped a good portion of the setting from Warhammer (specifically the Paradoxan society). Though she is a better writer by far than anyone outside of Abnett I have read in that series. Best part of the Dev Morris series is it is finished, the third book won't be all the far out from the two that are out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 How did everyone love Faith so much? I gave up right at the halfway point, so it wasn't the beginning or the ending that did me in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I read your review and agree with much of it, the 'criminally insane are smarter and better suited' thing, the oh so clever sexual references, all pretty silly. But the part in the middle where they are trying to outthink something that they have no idea how it thinks, I just ate it all up. Blind bombing, chase scenes, trying to suck eachother into gravity wells, the blind entry into whatever they called hyperspace. I just loved it all. I just didn't like the set up or the conclusion, it got in the way of a good space battle. And really that was what I read. A interesting 200 page space battle that kept being interrupted by characters I didn't care about, inside a sandwich of crappy breading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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