A Cracking read so far

CiDeRmAn

Just picked up the new paperback from Peter F Hamilton, Pandoras Star.
WOW!
The best opening chapter ever!
And so far it is up there with the Nights Dawn Trilogy, very good indeed.
Anyone else out there reading his stuff at the moment?
Any ideas when part two of this new trilogy will be out?
Are there many women who read this stuff and what do they think of it?
Thanks

Jimboo_Jones

it does drag a little in the middle, but really, really picks up at the end. Can not wait for the next, and last book

CiDeRmAn

Well had so much fun with the nights dawn trilogy don;t mind having to wait

David Stewart

Unfortunately, Judas Unchained seems to keep getting put back. It's now scheduled for release in October.

CiDeRmAn

Bugger, ah well back to the morse books i got for christmas, what a grumpy bastard he is!

CiDeRmAn

Finished it last week, Need More, NEED MORE NOW!!!!!!!!!!
Its like the Nights Dawn trilogy all over again, the long months of waiting til the next instalment!

Fenster

Its a good book. Its gets off to a slow start, really loses its way around the middle and ends on a right high note.

Manach

An excellent and interesting start so far. But the size of the book, 1000+ pages, means that I can ration my reading till the next one in the series is out. BTW I have not read "Mis-spent Youth" but I persume it is in the same shared universe as this.

David Stewart

There is a passing reference to events in Misspent Youth but you do not have to have read M.Y. to enjoy Pandora's Star.

Jimboo_Jones

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Finished it last week, Need More, NEED MORE NOW!!!!!!!!!!
Its like the Nights Dawn trilogy all over again, the long months of waiting til the next instalment!

First off I REALLY enjoyed the book. I thought the middle was a bit long, but you just know that when he is describing peoples lifes etc, that soon, there is going to be one almighty hammer come crashing down on them.... and o0oohh what a hammer ;p

oh and it ends on such a rush that you just NEED the next one, I read this early 2004 so just think how I feel... humm maybe I should read it again before the next one comes out

CiDeRmAn

Exposition seems to be an obsession with him, the description of the lives of these characters that you just know isn't going to last, ah well, looking forward to the kick ass sequel, may grab my mates copy of mis-spent youth to tide me over although there is the new takashi kovacs novel to read, hmmm....

Jimboo_Jones

I have just finished reading woken furies.

Great book and you get to meet some of the charactors that he has mentioned in previous books. Plenty of action as Tak gets to do what Tak does best on his home turf

Now I am stuck for a book to read, currently waiting for the second in the gap series to arrive...

CiDeRmAn

Like his buddy Jimmy who got nailed with that psychotropic ordinance and tried to claw his own face off, cool!

Pick up some Jonathan Lethem, Gun with Occasional Music, a very cool SciFi book, and while I know you all have if you haven't read and then re-read Michael Marshall Smith, Only Forward, Spares etc. you really should, also A Fall Of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke, fantastic stuff. The Ophiuchi Hotline and Steel Beach by John Varley, if you like Hard SF.

Jimboo_Jones

Jimmy isnt there, but he is mentioned again ;p

... I seem confused with what happend between the ending of the second and start of the third book though..

Hamiltons best book is fallen dragon though - loved that book

And the first Nights Dawn book, man the action never stopped in that book.

CiDeRmAn

thought that the reality disfunction, Nights Dawn part the first was a tad slow to get started, ended up putting it down and only picked it up again a month later, Never put it down til it was over and the long wait for the neutronium alchemist was out, great days!

qwertz

Finished the Naked God last night. I liked the trilogy a lot but I feel that the writer should have included another couple of hundred pages. Maybe I feel this way because I don't want it to be over Oh well, on to Red Mars. Hopefully this will tickle my fancy.

CiDeRmAn

The Mars series, theres a blast from the past, waited on each one in turn to get released.
A very different beast from the normal run-of-the-mill stuff out there.
No super weapons or impending galactic doom, just a story of the first Mars colonists and their lives and the life of the planet they inhabit, wonderful stuff, great descriptions of the geography of Mars as it changes with the terraforming.

Best of luck with it, it will broaden your mental horizons, kinda why we read this stuff in the first place, no?

qwertz

Should I read the trilogy first or start with Antarctica which has been released afterwards but is the prequal to the trilogy?

CiDeRmAn wrote:

The Mars series, theres a blast from the past, waited on each one in turn to get released.
A very different beast from the normal run-of-the-mill stuff out there.
No super weapons or impending galactic doom, just a story of the first Mars colonists and their lives and the life of the planet they inhabit, wonderful stuff, great descriptions of the geography of Mars as it changes with the terraforming.

Best of luck with it, it will broaden your mental horizons, kinda why we read this stuff in the first place, no?

CiDeRmAn

Nope, just jump straight in with red mars, but buy the lot so as you are not left dangling trying to find a bookshop that stocks the whole series!

qwertz

Alrightie, you wouldn't want to sell your Green and Blue Mars, would you?

CiDeRmAn

Fraid not, had you asked the Missus she would have sent them to you for free but I have to keep them, they should be available in the like of Chapters on Abbey Street as well as Forbidden Planet, they are in a Classics series which is unfortunate as you lose their great cover art in the process, as mars changes from red desert to earthlike world.

Jimboo_Jones

CiDeRmAn wrote:

thought that the reality disfunction, Nights Dawn part the first was a tad slow to get started, ended up putting it down and only picked it up again a month later, Never put it down til it was over and the long wait for the neutronium alchemist was out, great days!

Reality Disfuction was my fav ....spolier ;p

when they where trying to take out the bad guys, first it was the turn of the sherif and his bonded hound, then spooky and mulder and their bonded hawk, then the special forces army based on the planet and their 'gazer' guns, then the mercs made up from all over .. oh fantastic

Have you finished Woken Furies yet?

bonkey

If you're looking for something to tide you over till the sequel of Pandora's is out, and you haven't read it yet, may I humbly suggest you check out Dan Simmons' Ilium. Just be warned...it too is awaiting the release of its sequel (later this year).

And if you haven't read Simmons, go get Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion and Endymion / Rise of Endymion, his two previous two-parters (Endymion is a sequel-series of sorts to the original Hyperion Cantos). Not a pre-req for Ilium at all, but just DAMNED fine reading.

Oh - and Donaldson's Gap series.

jc

Tristram

Loved the Nights Dawn trilogy, if this is up there I have to get my hands on it.

What did people think of Fallen Dragon(think that was what it was called)?

Jimboo_Jones

Fallen Dragon is perhaps his best book, the tech in there is somewhere between mind star and night dawns, and the charactors seem more real - it has a lovely ending to it as well, which is the only big gripe I had about nights dawn.

Just finished the second in the gap series (stephen donaldson) .. this is turning out to be a craking series.

bonkey wrote:

And if you haven't read Simmons, go get Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion and Endymion / Rise of Endymion, his two previous two-parters (Endymion is a sequel-series of sorts to the original Hyperion Cantos). Not a pre-req for Ilium at all, but just DAMNED fine reading.

yeah I loved the Hyperion books, and they have the most over the top villian ever

so I guess its onto the third in Peter F Hamilton's Mind star series

Tristram

Looks like I hav a busy Summer of reading ahead of me.

bonkey

Jimboo_Jones wrote:

yeah I loved the Hyperion books, and they have the most over the top villian ever

Who?

If you mean the Shrike...it wasn't really the villain.

Ping Chow Chi

you know what he ment though

Fenster

Someone mentioned Woken Furies...it was crap. The plot had a direction in the first half, then threw it out entirely and meandered to a fine deus ex machina in the finale.

Ah well, he's setting up a good sequel, if anything.

super_furry

Just finished The Reality Dysfunction, which I picked up on recommendation from here, and I'm impressed. It's not the usual kind of thing I read and it's a bit of a slow burner - it takes a good while to work out all the jargon - but there's a great story in there and one of the best main characters I've come accross in ages in Joshua Calvaert.

Squall

Night Dawn was fantastic

Loved Pandora star (didnt realise it was a trilogy till the last few pages )

Ping Chow Chi

Squall wrote:

Night Dawn was fantastic

Loved Pandora star (didnt realise it was a trilogy till the last few pages )

I belive its a two parter

CiDeRmAn

Seems to be a drought of good new SF out there and the bookshops are shrinking their SF sections, jamming more and more F**King fantasy into it too, most annoying, like when they put the crystal rubbing rubbish like astrology and "know your own Angel" books into the science section, I tell you Easons will be first to the wall when the revolution comes!

Raft by Stephen Baxter, and then read The Time Ships, his first two novels and fanatastic, before he got bogged down with Mars bound Mammoths.
Also everyone should read Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, genius alternate history, what would have happened had the great plague wiped out Europe before they got out and colonised the world, stunning stuff,.

qwertz

Yep, Time Ships was very good. Any more recommendations? Looking for a good read that spans over several books.

protos

Alistair Reynolds Inhibitor trilogy is excellent. Very Hardcore science fiction - very satisfying to read.

ixoy

protos wrote:

Alistair Reynolds Inhibitor trilogy is excellent. Very Hardcore science fiction - very satisfying to read.

Just reading 'Chasm City' right now. It's outside the trilogy but it was the second book released, so I'm reading it before 'Absolution Gap' and 'Redemption Ark'. Quite enjoyed 'Revelation Space' I must say.

Fenster

Trilogy? Its a four book series!

Chasm City is set about a century before Revelation Space, but a lot of what happens in it ties in later in Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap. There are parts of Redemption Ark especially that will make no sense unless you read it.

Alastair Reynolds also has two novellas-Azure Days and Diamond Dogs-set within this universe.

His new novel, Century Rain is set in an entirely different universe, but shares a lot of the same ideas and technologies. He also has apparently managed to get a grip on writing good dialogue in it.

CiDeRmAn

For a good book series that spans a number of titles I would go back and hunt down anything by John Varley. Some of the best stuff ever put to paper, sci-fi or not "Steel Beach" and "The Ophiuchi Hotline" are incredible, there are a number of others that I can't call to mind but do get a hold of them, remarkable stuff.

Also get a hold of some Philip K Dick, especially "The Man In The High Castle".
And Harry Turtledove with "Guns Of The South", a very good alternate history book.

Ping Chow Chi

Fenster wrote:

He also has apparently managed to get a grip on writing good dialogue in it.

He still has trouble ending stories though

Oh I loved the Inhibitor series, but the ending .... well lets say it was a little quick.

He also tends to just 'fast forward' some of his plots, which can be annoying. The best example is in Chasm City where

they make a HUGE deal about the fact that they about to steal a spaceship - 'never been done before', 'will need perfect planning' etc, then he skips the heist all together and fast forwards them a few months to when they are all aboard the ship

Fenster

Ping Chow Chi wrote:

He still has trouble ending stories though

Oh I loved the Inhibitor series, but the ending .... well lets say it was a little quick.

He also tends to just 'fast forward' some of his plots, which can be annoying. The best example is in Chasm City where

they make a HUGE deal about the fact that they about to steal a spaceship - 'never been done before', 'will need perfect planning' etc, then he skips the heist all together and fast forwards them a few months to when they are all aboard the ship

Yeah, that was horrible. Then again, he did meander somewhat at the start.

secret_squirrel

Ping Chow Chi wrote:

He still has trouble ending stories though

Oh I loved the Inhibitor series, but the ending .... well lets say it was a little quick.

He also tends to just 'fast forward' some of his plots, which can be annoying. [/spoiler]

Agreed. He also seems to get bored with his main characters and once he has no further use for them he off's them in ways that dont necessarily help further the plot. Ending of Inhibitors series was kind inconcluive as well.

Oh we can keep the Wolves at bay - but along comes this green stuff and wrecks every planet any how. Plus we dont get to see the creatures behind the talking space suit.

Donaldsons Gap Series is some of the finest sci-fi out there.

Fallen Dragon is Hamiltons best book - brilliant ending.

Woken Furies is excellent - as is Market Forces - (silly premise, but well explored) Its not part of the Kovacs series though.

For a less epic but excellent novel - try Idlewild by Nick Sagan. Really good first book. The sequel isnt great tho.

For an epic series try Neal Ashers Polity Series (Gridlinked, Line of Polity and Brass Man (trilogy) and The Skinner (standalone)) - a cross between Iain Banks Culture books and Morgan's Kovac's books. Cowl is also good by same author.

ixoy

Do you know how tempting it is to look at those spoilers Ping Chow Chi and Fenster? I'm still reading the damned book

I've seen Richard Morgan's name passed around a bit - is his stuff worth checking out?

Ping Chow Chi

secret_squirrel wrote:

Donaldsons Gap Series is some of the finest sci-fi out there.

I've just read the first two (and loved them) - I am awaiting the rest of the series to be delivered. I hope that some rightous justice will be delt out to one or two of the charactors

secret_squirrel wrote:

Fallen Dragon is Hamiltons best book - brilliant ending.

I would agree with this, I had a tear in my eye at the end of the book. I would also recomend that you pick up his mindstar series, I'm on the third (and I think last one) and have really warmed to his central charactors, it is in a very simalar vain to the Kovacs series. The main charactor being an ex special forces trained man with the ability to 'read' peoples emotions. It also has Hamiltons staple of charactors, IE, super rich, super fit, teeaged sex-goddess etc

secret_squirrel wrote:

Woken Furies is excellent - as is Market Forces - (silly premise, but well explored) Its not part of the Kovacs series though.

.. I've not read Market Forces, I thought it was some none sci-fi stock mart book, maybe I'll pick it up after I have finished the gap series.

I will confess to liking Saga of the Seven Suns as well, which is basically a poor Nights Dawn 'clone'. Yes I know it is predictable, the charactors are very two dimensional, and some of the dialog is sounbelievable but it is just a fun read and the way he writes (small chapters, constantly changing from charactor to charactor) seems to speed up the pace of the story.

ixoy wrote:

I've seen Richard Morgan's name passed around a bit - is his stuff worth checking out?

yes I would recomend them (see what we have said about Kovacs )

secret_squirrel

ixoy wrote:

I've seen Richard Morgan's name passed around a bit - is his stuff worth checking out?

Hell yes. Real hardcore adult sci-fi. To be avoided if you dont like reading sex, violence, brilliant plotting and story telling.

Ping Chow Chi : Market forces is very near future sci-fi. Tis sorta about the stock market though. But its also about how the Main Character developes. (I cant say any more).

Really not a fan of Saga of the Seven Suns - but somehow keep buying each book! Its kinda epic sci-fi by-the-numbers - with (some of many) the flaws noted above. Its author is Kevin J Anderson.

protos

I'm not sure if he'd be classed as sci-fi or not, but everything John Wyndham (of Day Of The Triffids fame) is excellent. I got an omnibus of his stuff from the library once and I couldn't put it down. When I saw the film "28 days later" it really reminded me of his stuff.

CiDeRmAn

John Wyndham is a fine example, one should not jsut get caught up with reading the latest sci-fi published.
There is a vast array of incredible stories out there, each one reflecting key moods and movements of their respective times, from the industrial technological marvels of Jules Verne and HG Wells to the drugged out paranoia of Philip K Dick.
Arthur C. Clarke, John Varley, James Blish, John Brunner, Silverberg, all great if not ther most popular at the mo, comprising a vast wealth of great stories, many without the recourse to violence and sex that modern authors seem to default to automatically in every other chapter, relying instead on gripping storylines that broanden your mental horizons.

ixoy

Fenster wrote:

Chasm City is set about a century before Revelation Space, but a lot of what happens in it ties in later in Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap.

How do you figure that it's a century? The year is 2517, 'Revelation Space' is 2565. Also:

at the end of 'Chasm City', Tanner/Sky/Cahuella is clearly talking to the mercenary from 'Revelation Space' - even if the name isn't mentioned, it must be her given she's from 'Sky's Edge' and was sent to Chasm City by clerical error. And that's only six years after the main events of the story, which would put it at 2523 which seems to conflict with 'Revelation Space'....

Fenster

I need to check again. You get the impression in Revelation Space that the events are set a good many years after the melding plague broke out on Yellowstone, but Chasm City is set a few short years (I think seven) after it.

ixoy

OK I just checked and 'Chasm City' and 'Revelation Space' crossover:

'Chasm City' takes place in 2517, supported by the date at the start and another line of conversation in the book. The epilogue takes place 6 years after, in 2523. In this Tanner Mirabel meets a soldier from Sky's Edge, who I assumed to be Khouri from 'Revelation Space'.

Flicked back to 'Revelation Space' and Khouri's story is initially set in 2524, before she meets the othes. And in that, she talks about meeting an ex-Sky's Edge soldier called Tanner Mirabel who set her up for Shadowplay It's on one line only but it's a nice touch, bringing the two books together.

qwertz

So which one do you read first? Relevation Space (2000) or Chasm City (2001)? Thanks!

ixoy

qwertz wrote:

So which one do you read first? Relevation Space (2000) or Chasm City (2001)? Thanks!

I'd read it in the published order still - 'Revelation Space' followed by 'Chasm City'. There's not much character overlap, so you won't ruin anything that way, and there's bits in 'Chasm City' that may adversely affect 'Revelation Space'.