October 2015: What are you reading?

soulsinging said:

I'm almost done with Galactic North, by Alastair Reynolds. Only one story left (I'm saving the actual story Galactic North until after the rest of his Revelation Space books). I'm generally not a short story guy, but they're interesting enough for me to want to tackle the actual trilogy soon (I've been slightly intimidated). Very complex and thought-provoking!

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I absolutely LOVED Galactic North, but then again I'm a huge fan of Alastair Reynolds. Dilation Sleep, Nightengale and Grafenwalder's Bestiary were my favorite of the short stories in Galactic North. Dilation Sleep is one of my favorite short stories of all time...the way it conveys the loneliness of someone traveling between the stars, the atmosphere, the way the ship is described, the narrator's paranoia, and the ending...just wow. It's one of the stories I've recommended to people as an entry point into modern science fiction because it's so perfect.

But more than that, if you're a Reynolds fan, Dilation Sleep also ties in nicely with the overall Revelation Space trilogy and universe. In fact, all of the stories in GN do.

Of course, I cannot recommend the Revelation Space trilogy highly enough. Revelation Space itself completely changed the way I think about science fiction, and to this day there has not been another book that blew my mind the way RS did with its absolutely insane big ideas, and the exceptionally dark atmosphere. I remember reading a review where someone said they felt as if the characters in the book were perpetually draped in shadow, and somehow that fits perfectly -- the crew of the Nostalgia for Infinity are more machine than human, have absolutely no sense of morality, and are terrifyingly single-minded in their purpose. But the book is much bigger than that, about much more than that, and I can't say more here without spoiling it, except to say it's amazing.


As for me...

Just finishing up Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's my first time reading one of his books. I could really do without the thousands of words dedicated to pH balances in soil, the AI musing about greedy algorithms and halting problems, the ultra-detailed descriptions of how the ship's biomes function, etc. It's hard SF, I understand that, but I think there are ways to convey technical information without completely derailing the narrative and going on pages-long information dumps.

Next up: The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene, and then I think I'm gonna read some Banks, probably one of the Culture books I haven't read yet.

I finished Childhood's End. It really turned to something weird at the end!

I've started Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. It seems a little bizzare but then again, I'm only 30 pages in so far.

Just finished Maureen Johnson's SHADES OF LONDON duology.

Still making my way through Molly Tanzer's VERMILION.

About to embark on SANDMAN SLIM by Richard Kadrey.

Atum Hadu said:

Just finishing up Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's my first time reading one of his books. I could really do without the thousands of words dedicated to pH balances in soil, the AI musing about greedy algorithms and halting problems, the ultra-detailed descriptions of how the ship's biomes function, etc. It's hard SF, I understand that, but I think there are ways to convey technical information without completely derailing the narrative and going on pages-long information dumps.

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I've not read that one but I had very similar complaints about his Red Mars Book. And welcome to Chrons, I see you are a Banks and Reynolds fan; good stuff .

The Bluestocking said:

Just finished Maureen Johnson's SHADES OF LONDON duology.

Still making my way through Molly Tanzer's VERMILION.

About to embark on SANDMAN SLIM by Richard Kadrey.

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I've read 2 books in the Sandman Slim series. They are pretty violent.

dask said:

It almost seems a universal law that shows starting off in black and white are always superior to the later ones filmed in color.

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I could believe that. Sometimes the early color shows may have looked better in black and white. ....Although I watched Star Trek's original series from the first broadcast, I don't think I ever saw it in color till it was in syndication. I saw it on a black-and-white TV with a medium-size screen. Some of the costumes, makeup, and sets turned out to look pretty bad in color.

Vertigo said:

I've not read that one but I had very similar complaints about his Red Mars Book. And welcome to Chrons, I see you are a Banks and Reynolds fan; good stuff .

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Thanks for the welcome, Vertigo. Banks and Reynolds are my two favorites, and I'd love to broaden my SF horizons because I haven't found other novelists I like as much as those two. I really like Cordwainer Smith's stuff, and I enjoyed classics like Ringworld, but I'd love to find a contemporary writer who can hit the spot with awesome SF the way Banks and Reynolds do.

Atum Hadu said:

Thanks for the welcome, Vertigo. Banks and Reynolds are my two favorites, and I'd love to broaden my SF horizons because I haven't found other novelists I like as much as those two. I really like Cordwainer Smith's stuff, and I enjoyed classics like Ringworld, but I'd love to find a contemporary writer who can hit the spot with awesome SF the way Banks and Reynolds do.

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This isn't really the thread for that discussion but the author usually listed as being comparable to Banks is Neal Asher. He has his own sub forum on the Chrons where you can find out a lot more about him. Personally I love his stuff and would recommend reading his Polity books. Another author that you might consider, particularly in comparison with Reynolds, would be Peter F Hamilton, though his books tend to be in the 500-1000 page range which can put some off. My favourites from him are his Commonwealth duology and Void trilogy (flows on from the Commonwealth one), there's also his Night's Dawn trilogy which I'm not so fond of.

Trying to finish "The Girl in the Spider's Web." Book 4 in the Millenium series.

The book does suffer from the fact that author David Lagercrantz is not Stieg Larsson, who died after the third book in the obviously unfinished series ended. He relies a little more on infodumping than Larsson did, but that is sort of to be expected, as the books are really rather dense factually and have involved plots as well. OTOH he doesn't really change the very interesting characters that made the books so popular very much at all.

The books are becoming more and more SF as their story develops. Extremely interesting tale and very gratifying to see that someone is going to try and finish the series, which really stopped at their most interesting point and showed no indication they would ever be continued.

Having had to do a bunch of very boring technical reading recently I decided to have a bit of an indulgent military space opera session

Dorsai! by Gordon R Dickinson - How come I've never read any of his stuff before? Great classic military space opera romp. More here.
Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell - First in his follow on Beyond the Frontier series. I thoroughly enjoyed it but fear that it might all get a bit samey. More here.

And to continue the theme I'm now half way through and thoroughly enjoying The Heart of Matter by Evan Currie. The second in his Odyssey One series.

Vertigo said:

Having had to do a bunch of very boring technical reading recently I decided to have a bit of an indulgent military space opera session

Dorsai! by Gordon R Dickinson - How come I've never read any of his stuff before? Great classic military space opera romp. More here.
Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell - First in his follow on Beyond the Frontier series. I thoroughly enjoyed it but fear that it might all get a bit samey. More here.

And to continue the theme I'm now half way through and thoroughly enjoying The Heart of Matter by Evan Currie. The second in his Odyssey One series.

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great choices don't worry about jack campbell, there's plenty to find out in his series. gordon of course is a classic and evan currie has 6 books in the series all quite good i have two more sugestions if yu want lol and you can also see my recommendations here in the fórum

tobl said:

great choices don't worry about jack campbell, there's plenty to find out in his series. gordon of course is a classic and evan currie has 6 books in the series all quite good i have two more sugestions if yu want lol and you can also see my recommendations here in the fórum

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Where, please?

Thanks!

I read the first 50 pages or so of Naomi Novik's Temeraire on the way to work this morning. It's Patrick O'Brian's 'Aubrey/Maturin' series plus dragons. Hmmm.

tobl said:

great choices don't worry about jack campbell, there's plenty to find out in his series. gordon of course is a classic and evan currie has 6 books in the series all quite good i have two more sugestions if yu want lol and you can also see my recommendations here in the fórum

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Thanks @tobl but between my TBR pile and my wish list I have rather a large amount of space opera waiting for me.

I must admit that I didn’t like Temeraire as much as I would have wanted. I don’t think I found any of the characters did much for me.

I’ve finished Ira Levin’s The Boys From Brazil. It’s a tense, short thriller which raises an interesting question at the end. Overall, it’s pretty good, like Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, and makes its lurid and potentially cheesy concept fairly convincing. I’m impressed how taught and abbreviated it is, too. There are no subplots, little description, and characters travel between continents from one paragraph to the next. In fact, it reminds me very much of the more arty style of 1970s thriller films in story form: violent and fierce, but also rather jumbled and requiring a fair amount of work from the reader.

Now I’m on Little Green by Walter Mosely, a story about a black private detective in the 1960s. I think Mosely is very good on establishing the setting. He has a couple of annoying authorial habits: in particular, describing characters instead of using their names. Things like “The long-limbed expert mechanic replied” happen on almost every page. But it’s getting pretty good otherwise, and some of the description I like a lot.

Mark Ragland said:

Where, please?

Thanks!

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mike resnick and the Brothers in valour series those are the two recomendations. as for more suggestions lol that's easy
if you want fantastic try elseerian by ben hale, or the books by Patrick rothfuss (the name of the wind, a wise's man fear) or peter v. brett with the painted man series, the princess of mars series by edgar rice burroughs, etc...
if you want conspiracies try Christopher farnsworth with the president's vampire series, daniel suarez with influx and kill decision, jonathan maberry with the joe ledger series, ernest cline with ready player one and armada, Richard phillips second ship series, simon r green secret histories series, charles stross laundry files, larry correia monster hunter series, david lynn golemon event series, ....
if you want military try h paul honsinger honor series, jack campbell lost fleet series, matthew reilly shane schofield series, michael mccollum gilbratar series, mike resnick starship series, mike shepherd kris longknife series, evan currie into the black series, John ringo, danny kollin the unincorporated man series. Stephen w Bennett koban series,david weber, Christopher g nuttall ark royal series...
if you want magic, try laurel k Hamilton, jim butcher, simon r. green...
This is just a beguining and express only my opinion. There are others but this are some of the best if not the best in any gender

Wrapped up Galactic North and it finished strong. I still haven't read the actual story that gave the book its title, as I have decided I will tackle the Revelation Space series this winter.

First though, got to clear some other things off my shelf, starting with Ace of Skulls, by Chris Wooding. It's the last book of the Ketty Jay series which I've enjoyed immensely even if it doesn't offer much in the way of originality. Just a good story with great pacing and a ragtag crew you can enjoy rooting for.

soulsinging said:

Wrapped up Galactic North and it finished strong. I still haven't read the actual story that gave the book its title, as I have decided I will tackle the Revelation Space series this winter.

First though, got to clear some other things off my shelf, starting with Ace of Skulls, by Chris Wooding. It's the last book of the Ketty Jay series which I've enjoyed immensely even if it doesn't offer much in the way of originality. Just a good story with great pacing and a ragtag crew you can enjoy rooting for.

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I keep meaning to have a look at those Wooding books; so much to read and so little time.

On Revelation Space I personally would recommend reading Chasm City first (as have a number of others). Although it's a stand alone I think it gives a much better intro to the universe than Revelation Space itself and I think it is set earlier than the trilogy.

dask said:

Can I ask who the editor is of the horror anthology you're reading?

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Hi, Dask.

Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural was first published in the 1940s, edited by Herbert Wise and Phyllis Cerf (later Wagner, I think), not the first but among the first from a major publisher to include stories by Lovecraft ("The Rats in the Walls" and "The Dunwich Horror"). It's been in print in the U.S. from Modern Library pretty much since first publication.

It is still a go-to anthology for older work. Wise and Cerf divided the book into two sections, the first of non-supernaturals stories and the second of supernatural tales. They did seem to have a blind spot for those works that play with the distinction: Wise's introduction dismisses Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Body Snatchers" for reasons that strike me as misreading, which also perhaps accounts for not including Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper."


Randy M.

Vertigo, they're well worth a look.