― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 17:20 (5 years ago) Permalink
― otto, Wednesday, 4 February 2004 18:48 (5 years ago) Permalink
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 19:40 (5 years ago) Permalink
And I'd second the recommendation for China Mieville's Perdido Street Station (which I loved and spent a whole weekend reading rather than spending time with loved ones).
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 5 February 2004 12:21 (5 years ago) Permalink
someone recommend me a sci-fi book
i like:
iain m. bankschina mievillephilip k dickarthur c clarke
a bunch of other people
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Saturday, 24 October 2009 15:15 (4 weeks ago) Permalink
Something recent? I've no idea... Something old? Have you read Slan by A.E. Van Vogt?
― Jeff LeVine, Saturday, 24 October 2009 20:58 (4 weeks ago) Permalink
Good Science Fiction of the last 20 to 30 years
― caek, Saturday, 24 October 2009 21:40 (4 weeks ago) Permalink
i have not read slan!
i guess recent? no real pref either way, just looking for something new to me. i tend to like "big" (banks-style) epic stuff. alastair reynolds has sort of scratched that itch lately but i dont really LOVE what he does.
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Saturday, 24 October 2009 22:18 (4 weeks ago) Permalink
you know i finally read "the stars my destination" sometime this summer and while it was pretty dece it was like nowhere NEAR as earth-shattering as i'd been lead to believe..
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Saturday, 24 October 2009 22:23 (4 weeks ago) Permalink
John Brunner classics like Sheep Look Up, Stand On Zanzibar, Jagged Orbit, and Shockwave Rider are still good fun - just based on who ya like s1ocki
― BlackIronPrison, Saturday, 24 October 2009 23:57 (4 weeks ago) Permalink
the war against the rull by a.e. van vogt is awesome
― FACK, Sunday, 25 October 2009 01:07 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
'the forever war' by joe haldeman is not recent but maybe one of the top five sci fi books i've read.
― jØrdån (omar little), Sunday, 25 October 2009 01:46 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
Gear, your current screenname has opened up a wormhole in ILX.
― oater to oxidation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 October 2009 01:49 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
It would make my decade if Ridley Scott makes that Forever War film.
― WmC, Sunday, 25 October 2009 02:05 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
― jØrdån (omar little), Saturday, October 24, 2009 9:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
i thought this was pretty good! like "stars my destinaysh" it didnt quite blow my mind, but it was a great idea, pretty well-executed.
you know what i LOVED recently was that sci-fi academy all-star anthology or whatever it was called, that famous antho of classic sci-fi. i loved those stories that pointed in weird directions that sci-fi COULD have gone in but didn't, like scanners live in vain
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Sunday, 25 October 2009 14:57 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
You talking about this, s1ocki? Best Story in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964 (Unabridged Version)
― oater to oxidation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 October 2009 15:52 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
yes!
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Sunday, 25 October 2009 15:55 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
scanners live in vain
― oater to oxidation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 October 2009 16:01 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
recs?
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Sunday, 25 October 2009 19:07 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
Get the James Tiptree, Jr. collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. The Cordwainer Smith stuff comes in two formats, either When The People Fell plus We The Underpeople from Baen Books or The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith plus Norstrilia from the NESFA Press. Of course, none of this is "recent" as per the thread title.
― oater to oxidation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 October 2009 19:30 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
Hm. Looks like there is even a paper comparing those two: Painwise in Space: The Psychology of Isolation in Cordwainer Smith and James P. Tiptree, Jr.Elms, Alan C. in: Westfahl, Gary, ed. Space and Beyond: The Frontier Theme in Science Fiction. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000. pp.131-142.
― oater to oxidation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 October 2009 20:05 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
May have mentioned these on the other thread, but...
Peter Watts: Blindsight
Stephen Baxter: Flood (plus the 4 he wrote with Clarke's name on the front, 'Time's Eye', 'Destiny's Children' and so on)
Paul McAuley: The Quiet War
Ian Macdonald: Chindi
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Sunday, 25 October 2009 22:41 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
I was recommended Charles Stross recently and I'm reading Accelerando which I like a lot.
I also dug M. John Harrison's Light. The follow up to that story, Nova Swing, not as much.
thumbs up on the Brunner books.
― sknybrg, Monday, 26 October 2009 09:14 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
blindsight looks kinda cool...
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Monday, 26 October 2009 14:54 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
It is--lots of clever biology/cognition stuff, exciting drama, very grim, very clever
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Monday, 26 October 2009 22:28 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
Think I'm going to have to check that one out too.
― oater to oxidation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 00:03 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
― When Baron Saturday Comes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 01:02 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
Peter Watts is great, especially the Rifters trilogy (all are available as free online ebooks, don't let that put you off). Charlie Stross is also very good, not many will writers take you step by step through the singularity.
― AJD, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 10:36 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
If I want to read those John Brunner novels, can I just get going The Sheep Look Up or is it better to start with Stand On Zanzibar?
― When Baron Saturday Comes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 28 October 2009 15:41 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
I couldn't make it past the first 20 pages of Stand On Zanzibar
― Jeff LeVine, Wednesday, 28 October 2009 16:32 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
i remember enjoying light but also having little to no idea what was going on
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Wednesday, 28 October 2009 16:44 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
You should get the big Viriconium book, Jordan, it's a little more straightforward.
― When Baron Saturday Comes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 28 October 2009 16:47 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
what version of the forever war did you read, s1ocki? did it include the "you can't go home again" section? anyway i second the paul mcauley recommendation, everything i've read by him is quite good.
― jØrdån (omar little), Wednesday, 28 October 2009 17:20 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
im not sure, what is that section?
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Friday, 30 October 2009 16:27 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
mandella goes back home after his first tour of duty and he's aged a few months while his family has aged, i dunno, thirty or forty years, and the world has changed drastically and everything is kinda fucked up and everyone he knows who is still alive is unrecognizable to him. so he just decides to re-enlist. it kinda adds another melancholy edge to the story, though there are a few nice satirical touches too. (i was wrong btw, the section is called 'You Can Never Go Back'.)
― jØrdån (omar little), Friday, 30 October 2009 17:12 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
― When Baron Saturday Comes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 October 2009 17:18 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
Is there any newish SF along the lines of Ted Chiang (the "newest" SF author I remember liking)Also not new, but how is Texas-Israeli War?
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 30 October 2009 17:53 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
"both are amazing, using the conventions of fantasy and at the same time subverting them, but not in some kind of offputting, po-mo way (unless the reader is thomp)."
haha wait what?
― thomp, Saturday, 31 October 2009 12:30 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
how 'bout this Kim Stanley Robinson guy? Any good?
― lol bartleby lol humanity (CharlieS), Sunday, 1 November 2009 03:54 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
I think so! the Mars books and the most recent climate change trilogy are the best places to start.
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Sunday, 1 November 2009 05:31 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
― jØrdån (omar little), Friday, October 30, 2009 1:12 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
is that the end or...? cuz the one i read had a sort of fake-feeling happy ending
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Tuesday, 3 November 2009 17:31 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
I'm in the middle of Light, thanks to this thread. It's making my head spin. Engrossing bus reading.
― Jaq, Tuesday, 3 November 2009 17:56 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
it's in the middle of the novel. the happy ending is the original ending and is awesome imo, because it's still a little absurd in keeping with the overall absurdity of the story. didn't feel fake to me, it kind of felt earned.
― jØrdån (omar little), Tuesday, 3 November 2009 18:40 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
I'm in the middle of Light, thanks to this thread. Over the years, I started not paying too much attention to the recommendations of other ILX0rs, but for some reason on these sci-fi threads I keep thinking: "Oh, I gotta read THAT one!"
― tal farlow's pather panchali (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 November 2009 23:45 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
I couldn't get more than 100 pages into KSR's climate-change trilogy, but Red/Green/Blue Mars are fantastic. And I really really loved his Orange County Trilogy.
― WmC, Tuesday, 3 November 2009 23:52 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
I gotta read those Mars books too. Got the first one as a freebie ebook- they give them away sometimes to get you hooked on the series.
― tal farlow's pather panchali (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 00:56 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
Ooh, where from? Got new sony reader so keen on getting freebies!
― George Mucus (ledge), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 10:32 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
Sorry, it's a Kindle. Mrs. Redd got me one as a present back in 2008.
― tal farlow's pather panchali (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 13:48 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
(unless the reader is thomp).
still waiting for an explanation of this ~
― thomp, Friday, 6 November 2009 14:19 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
OK, sorry it was based on one post of yours on another thread. Let me find it. Here it is:The girls are out flaunting their Summer plumage but you're stuck inside, reading. What?
― BIG STROON aka the santaclara drug (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 6 November 2009 15:34 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
aha
i was annoyed at nova swing being a bit lame, i think. i dunno, i have a weird relationship with fantasy fiction & New Wave i have probably gone on about before. i'm actually reading a lottt of 'fantasy conventions but not' type stuff right now, i think i might have undervalued those two. it's been a while.
― thomp, Saturday, 7 November 2009 15:20 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
has anyone read 'the centauri device'? i think i was lumping the first two viriconium books in mentally with that and thomas disch's 'the genocides' - you know, "it's the titanic struggle to save the earth from being wiped out oh wait we lost earth got wiped out ha ha" - "if we don't do this thing the universe gets blown up oh ha the universe just got blown up" - mentally i had pastel city/storm of wings as "we have to go get the magic artifact and save fantasyland oh wait fantasyland is screwed"
― thomp, Saturday, 7 November 2009 15:23 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
Just ordered a copy of The Centauri Device, will let you know when I get round to reading it.
That German sci-fi comp somebody mentioned on another thread, The Black Mirror, seems like it might be pretty good. Guy who put it together has apparently done some other compilations of some interesting stuff.
― Run-WmC (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 8 November 2009 04:59 (1 week ago) Permalink
Loved the years of rice and salt by KSR.
― Jeff, Sunday, 8 November 2009 05:33 (1 week ago) Permalink
Much prefer The Centauri Device to Light.
― alimosina, Sunday, 8 November 2009 16:04 (1 week ago) Permalink
Really enjoyed Centauri Device, though it's pretty pulpy. Apparently Harrison hates it now.
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Sunday, 8 November 2009 20:27 (1 week ago) Permalink
Just picked up Jeff Vandermeer's new one, Finch, and expect to be immersed in fungal craziness for the next week or so.
― Soukesian, Sunday, 8 November 2009 23:06 (1 week ago) Permalink
Harrison hates The Centauri Device? No wonder it's not in print in the US.
― Raggett Out Of Denver (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 November 2009 00:14 (1 week ago) Permalink
Without giving anything away, The Centauri Device contains a nasty caricature of Burroughs. Which is rather ungrateful on Harrison's part, considering:
Could give no other information than wind walking in a rubbish heap to the sky - Solid shadow turned off the white film of noon heat - Exploded deep in the alley tortured metal Oz - Look anywhere, Dead hand - Phosphorescent bones -
--Nova Express
The sky was green and gray, luminous with radio-decay products. Wind walking in a rubbish heap; dead lights and water
--The Centauri Device
― alimosina, Monday, 9 November 2009 04:43 (1 week ago) Permalink
What's Burroughs' SF like? I've been tempted, but then I pick it up and read a page, and get the hives.
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Monday, 9 November 2009 08:11 (1 week ago) Permalink
Should I bother with anything Harrison if I prefer my SF ultra-hard?
― George Mucus (ledge), Monday, 9 November 2009 13:20 (1 week ago) Permalink
I would say no. Harrison is very far from hard SF.
― alimosina, Monday, 9 November 2009 14:36 (1 week ago) Permalink
I was getting that impression, after reading a Lightextract - http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/light.htm
Not that I'm completely against somewhat less than mathematically rigourous flights of fancy, but I think I prefer things to be one or the other. If you don't care about mathematical rigour then don't make it seem like hard SF on the surface, and if you do want to write hard SF then please try and make it sound plausible. Even if it's still all made up in the end.
― George Mucus (ledge), Monday, 9 November 2009 14:53 (1 week ago) Permalink
If you don't care about mathematical rigour then don't make it seem like hard SF on the surface
(hi dere Peter F Hamilton)
― George Mucus (ledge), Monday, 9 November 2009 14:54 (1 week ago) Permalink
Burroughs' stuff is mostly hallucinatory exaggerations of the drug addict experience rather than SF. If you want a sample, go to Google Books, Naked Lunch restored text, the chapter called "The Black Meat." None of the rest is any more pleasant.
― alimosina, Monday, 9 November 2009 18:00 (1 week ago) Permalink
I liked 'a junkie's xmas' which is kind of SF:
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 9 November 2009 18:12 (1 week ago) Permalink
Halfway into 'Finch', the new Vandermeer - damn, this one is bleak. Any trace of the whimsy that was present in the early Abmergris stories is gone, the fungoid 'grays' are running things, and they've matured into truly Lovecraftian nasties. It's a hardboiled detective story with lots of squishy Burroughs/Cronenberg technology.
― Soukesian, Wednesday, 11 November 2009 13:00 (1 week ago) Permalink
Sounds good. Something has kept me from getting really into Vandermeer, and whimsy might be it. He comes off so nice and enthusiastic about everything he loves, and I want to root for the guy/like his stories more.
― CharlieS, Wednesday, 11 November 2009 22:33 (1 week ago) Permalink
Is the first Ambergris book City Of Saints and Madmen?
― Bloggers Might Ride (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 11 November 2009 22:40 (1 week ago) Permalink
btw, I really liked Neal Stephenson's latest, Anathem. I think it got a mixed reception on the Stephenson thread.
― WmC, Wednesday, 11 November 2009 22:43 (1 week ago) Permalink
xpost aren't two of his books called City of Saints and Madmen? I read (most of) the one that's a comp of already published stuff.
― CharlieS, Wednesday, 11 November 2009 22:44 (1 week ago) Permalink
Now I remember that City of Saints and Madmen was automatically recommended to me because I was a customer who bought Viriconium. At the same time they also recommended something called The Etched City, by K.J. Bishop.
― Bloggers Might Ride (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 November 2009 01:09 (1 week ago) Permalink
"I really liked Neal Stephenson's latest, Anathem. I think it got a mixed reception on the Stephenson thread."
I think Stephenson (like David Foster Wallace) is much better as an essayist writing directly in the first person than getting across ideas through a character's mouth.This is really excellent, and has as much idea-density as Anathem: http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/C_R_Y_P_T_O_N_O_M_I_C_O_N.shtml
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 12 November 2009 01:18 (1 week ago) Permalink
Loved Anathem, my favourite Stephenson so far (out of Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and er The Big U).
― George Mucus (ledge), Thursday, 12 November 2009 09:46 (1 week ago) Permalink
xpost: City Of Saints and Madmen, in it's myriad of different editions, collects the first Ambergris stories. A lot of this stuff exists as chapbooks, and there are loads of appendices and footnotes. Shriek: An Afterword comes next, is much more of a cohesive novel. Finch takes up the story a century later.
Shriek is distinctly darker than City, set in the middle of a brutal civil war, and seems to me to be about the siege of Sarajevo in some way. Finch is darker still, and takes place in an Ambergris taken under totalitarian control by the fungoid Grays in the aftermath of a disastrous war with the Kalif. (Draw your own conclusions.) I'm still only half-way through, but there's a great sense that threads left hanging very early in the series are about to be drawn up.
Jeff does indeed seem like a lovely bloke, but his last couple of novels suggest that the everyday horror of current events is getting to him in ways that actually makes me question the routines I've developed to insulate myself from outrage. Also worth checking out: The Situation, a novella of office politics and paranoia that perfectly melds Burroughs, Lovecraft and Ligotti. Beautiful limited hardcover form PS.
― Soukesian, Thursday, 12 November 2009 14:31 (1 week ago) Permalink
Etched City was pretty good IIRC, a gritty swashbuckler in the Jack Vance mould. I randomly happened to meet Bishop's partner, and I think there was supposed to be another novel coming, but I haven't heard anything about it.
― Soukesian, Thursday, 12 November 2009 14:34 (1 week ago) Permalink
Copy I have of City Of Saints And Madmen has really cheesy intro by Michael Moorcock.
Looks like The Centauri Device I ordered has arrived already, all the way from the UK. All the way from Gloucester. I guess I should finish reading Course Of the Heart and the second half of the Viriconium omnibus first before I start.
― Bloggers Might Ride (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 November 2009 01:17 (1 week ago) Permalink
OK, I can see why you people like The C D but I can also see why the author might refer to it as "he crappiest thing I ever wrote."
― It Ain't The Meme (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 19 November 2009 19:30 (2 days ago) Permalink
am reading the iain banks gaming book and am endlessly amused by the funny names for the ships.any other SF comedy to look out for?
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 19 November 2009 19:40 (2 days ago) Permalink