The Sci-Fi Book Thread

Tred_sl said:

Can anyone recommend like a comedic space sci fi book or series? The serious stuff just doesn't seem to hold my interest well at all.

Click to expand...

Another late reply butThe Stainless Steel Ratseries by Harry Harrison are pretty decent.

steven spielberg is gonna adapt ready player one to the big screen
Steven Spielberg to direct Ready Player One film adaptation | Polygon

fresh_sl said:

Revelation Space and its sequels by Alastair Reynolds are the best sci-fi I've read lately.

Click to expand...

Your post made me read the whole series. You need to read better books and Reynolds can suck my cock. That's not how you end a 5 book series. It was complete bullshit and I'm super pissed.

Started Ready Player One so I can bitch at spronk as well if I don't like it.

Need another book/books recommendation like Hamilton's Void / Night's Dawn or Bank's Culture series.

I'm finishing up Ilium/Olympos and enjoyed the hell out both. Solid recommendation, whoever that was.

Ilium series by Dan Simmons

I am need some reads, I really enjoy authors such as simmons hamilton and morgan. Can anyone recommend anything else?

Finished Ready Player One, was like a shittier Sword Art Online, but american. Anyway, hated it. U suck spronk.

Started A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. I did read A fire Upon the Deep a while back but I had no idea it has a prequel (and a sequel).

Moseby, try Culture series by Banks. Him and Hamilton wrote the best shit I' ve read lately.

i never said it was great, i just said spielberg is making a movie out of it. I've read a lot of recent scifi and sadly haven't found anything that really compares to hamilton and banks. Read the recent stuff by Baxter (Proxima/Ultima), Black Legion (meh), Cixin Liu Three Body Problem (interesting chinese scifi but meh), and Saga of Seven Suns.

I guess the closest to Hamilton I'd say is Gary Gibson's Shoal Sequence (3 or 4 books), not quite as good but decent space opera. James Corey Expanse series (3 or 4 books now too) is also ok, SyFy is turning it into a big TV show this fall.

Hamilton did have a new book late last year, Abyss Beyond Dreams - Chronicle of the Fallers, which is set in the Confederation timeline I think between the first trilogy and the void series. It wasn't bad, pretty much more Hamilton.

now i'm mostly reading pratcher since I never read any of the discworld stuff, its fun but obviously humor-fantasy not scifi

gogusrl_sl said:

...
Need another book/books recommendation like Hamilton's Void / Night's Dawn or Bank's Culture series.

Click to expand...

moseby_sl said:

I am need some reads, I really enjoy authors such as simmons hamilton and morgan. Can anyone recommend anything else?

Click to expand...

I've just started re-reading Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. Her writing style can be difficult, but if you like the book there's about 30 more in the same setting / history.

Fyro_sl said:

Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Shrike is the ultimate Grendel in my opinion.

Click to expand...

Just finished Hyperion. I can't believe I haven't read Dan Simmons until now. I love his aesthetic. What a great book.

I'm trying to remember a book title and haven't had any luck. Its a sci fi book about an autistic guy who creates force field bubbles using a modified remote control he made. The bubbles can then be used to swallow up mass and then shrink down and open a pin hole in the bubble to use as a rocket. Its been years since I read it. Anyone know what the heck I'm talking about?

No, but when you figure it out let me know. Sounds fun.

I'm currently enjoying A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. I've read a while back A Fire Upon the Deep and only recently I discovered there's more in the same universe. I like his style and he has a lot of new and interesting ideas (at least for me).

gogusrl_sl said:

I'm currently enjoying A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. I've read a while back A Fire Upon the Deep and only recently I discovered there's more in the same universe. I like his style and he has a lot of new and interesting ideas (at least for me).

Click to expand...

Those are probably my two favorite sci-fi books, love them. The direct sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep is also out, Children of the Sky, though I think it suffers greatly from "middle book" syndrome in a series, in that it seems built to kind of set up the 3rd book and people were generally unhappy with it.

He also has another universe, with the books The Peacer War and Marooned in Realtime. Both are really good also.

Vinge's Rainbows End is easily one of the best recent Hugo winners out there.

gogusrl_sl said:

No, but when you figure it out let me know. Sounds fun.

I'm currently enjoying A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. I've read a while back A Fire Upon the Deep and only recently I discovered there's more in the same universe. I like his style and he has a lot of new and interesting ideas (at least for me).

Click to expand...

Reddit helped me out and it seems it was Red Thunder by John Varley. First of 4 books it looks like.

Does this Void trilogy ever stop sucking balls? I really liked the first 3 books, but these space monkeys and stuff are a little tough to get into.

No, sadly. Yeah the first commonwealth trilogy was like very best stuff from his old Night's Dawn series without all the bullshit spirituality/afterlife ghost shit he garbled that series with..... the Void series is pretty much where he throws all those shit ideas into the otherwise excellent Commonwealth series.

He could've just gone and done a lower-tech prequel to the commonwealth series and it would be a thousand times better than the void shit. His posthuman ideas are fine but ANA:governance and Advancer faction stuff is ugh.

Glad I'm not the only one. He does this thing where he introduces tons of characters then pulls them all together and its really tough when they're all 21 year old perfect looking monkey training dreaming computer people things. I think he went one toke over the line.

Finished A Deepness in the Sky, loved it. Gonna hold on Children of the Sky until the third book is out.

Finally got around to reading Old Man's War and now I'm on The Ghost Brigades. Not sure why I waited for so long to get into them but they're great.

gogusrl_sl said:

Finished A Deepness in the Sky, loved it. Gonna hold on Children of the Sky until the third book is out.

Finally got around to reading Old Man's War and now I'm on The Ghost Brigades. Not sure why I waited for so long to get into them but they're great.

Click to expand...

I rather liked Deepness, especially the concept of but Children is completely forgettable, imo.

Scalzi's usually entertaining, even if Fuzzy Nation is about 70% copy-pasting The Android's Dream, but I would heavily advise you to skip Zoe's Tale.

Was thinking about jumping into Stephenson's Seveneves, any opinions?