Excellent rec on Tide Child thanks, never heard of it and now Im tearing through it.
Really can't get Tide Child out of my head. Loved it. I ripped through all 3 books in about 2 weeks and regretted it.
On the second 'Ninth' book by Muir, great story but christ her prose at times reads like Mean Girls (and I love the movie) but some sentences really detract from the story and, for me, are there to just sound cool and miss the mark by a long way. Really like the 'magic' style and am interested to see where the story goes.
Finished a few recently:
* "When Jackals Storm the walls" by Bradley P. Beaulieu, the fifth book in his "The Song of the Shattered Sands" series. It took a little while to get going but the ending did tie things well together - almost too well because there's another book which, given how things got wrapped up, feels like a sort of Toy Story 4 added on.
* "Call of the Bone Ships" by RJ Barker, the second in his 'Tide Child' trilogy. I'll echo lordgoat above - this was very good. Best book of 2022 so far for me. I loved the prose and world building, really made for something that felt unique. Unlike many other sea-based stories that I've read, you really felt the power and fury of the ocean. Great stuff.
* "Feast and Famine" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is a collection of old short stories by him (a good few written before his Apt series). Nice range in them - modern urban fantasy, an Apt story, horror, sci-fi, etc. Not his highest quality work but a good showcase of his range.
* "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir. I liked this initially but ... Weir's good with the DIY science (and that's fun) but his prose is weak and Grace (the 1st person narrator) comes across like an over-eager teenager than someone on a critical mission. It all felt like something that was self published (much like his previous 'The Martian' initially was). It's got a snappy pace but really lacked any sort of substance.
* "Uncrowned" by Will Wight, the seventh book in his Cradle series. More progression fantasy, this time with a big tournament designed to showcase a load of different challenges and fight sequences which Wight does very well. More lore unfolds and it's a breeze to read. At times it reminds me of animé but that's no bad thing. Solid popcorn fantasy.
Klara and the Sun is on my list, I love Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go by the guy who wrote Remains of the Day, sorry this one a Pulitzer and every other award going? It's so boring and depressing.
Tide Child Trilogy - RJ Barker - really enjoyed it
Gideon the Ninth at the moment and enjoying it
Probably worth picking up some of Joe Abercrombie's books. There's a small touch of magic, but it really doesn't have much of an effect on anything. They're pretty gritty, as easily brutal as GoTs.
Thank you, yes, I know all of them. And enjoyed them too. Some more than others.
I probably did more or less all of the big series over the years. Culture. Hyperion. Ringworld. Agent Cormac. Dudley Bose. Edenists & Adamists. The Bobs. The Old Men. Lost Fleet. Honor Harrington. Vattas War. The Classics like Asimov, Clarke, Dune, Heinlein. You name it.
Could re-read some of those and probably after forgetting a good few too.
I guess I mentioned Vorkosigan cos its a more recent read for me and I like Bujold's style very much.
Edit: If only I could develop a taste for fantasy I'm sure there would be a whole host of excellent new stuff but I just can't help it, every time there is magic and unicorns and witches and sh1t I just go blank. Even though I liked LOTR and GOT. Which is weird cos a lot of sci-fi might as well be magic.
Have you tried Peter F Hamiltons Nights Dawn trilogy or Commonwealth Saga? I think they'd make your list easily if you did.
Neal Ashers polity universe is another masterpiece and theres a dozen+ books in it like Vorkosigan (way better than Vorkosigan and more "modern")
Just finished 'A Memory Called Empire' and its sequel 'A Desolation Called Peace'.
I consume science fiction in general and space opera in particular like a junkie. And every time I finish something that was worth sticking with I feel like I never gonna read something as good as that again. And yet somehow I manage to find something else again. Avid readers will probably know the cycle.
Some of my favourites are Banks' The Culture, Bujold's Vorkosigan. I love Murderbot. Just to name a few.
This time I ended up with Arkady Martine's books. Except for some poetry and short stories she's only got those two AFAIK.
Different to anything I ever read in style, outlook and reference and it really left a deep impression on me. It is very very good. Its wide, it builds a great universe it has deep and immersing characters and its different. Its relevant. Also from a male point of view it seems rather... female - making it more interesting again. I can t recommend it enough.
Finished "The Burning Light" by Bradley Beaulieu and Rob Ziegler. Great, taut read, interesting post-environmental apocalypse world with all sorts of weird things happening. Highly recommended.
Finished "Seed" by Rob Ziegler, because I was so happy with Burning Light. Not quite as good a read as "Burning Light" but still pretty good, with a different take on weird post apocalyptic settings. A bit old (2011) but a nice find anyway, Ziegler doesn't appear to have published too much.
Finished John Scalzi's Redshirts; it didn't go in the direction I had guessed it might have, and overall found the story kinda petered out a little, never quite using the very stakes it otherwise established fairly well. Scalzi's dialogue and character writing remains something I have a thin appetite for; the cast often all sounding deeply interchangeable in their snarky and zingers.
Reading Bastion at the moment. Only the first book of the series is released, so not complete. It's more progression fantasy in the same style as Cradle, although the book is much bigger.
Finished The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M John Harrison. Had to drag myself through it. It might be the fact that I read before sleep so my brain wasn't fully engaging, but on the face of it there was little plot, I don't even know if the sunken land rose in the end - I like when the science is thought through- but I'm left wondering if it was all just a metaphor for generational gaps or self discovery.
Read Neill Gaiman's Norse Mythology then, a few short stories/myths about the Norman gods from creation to Ragnarok. Interesting to compare with Marvels take on it.
Yep, I read a bunch of web fiction particularly during the pandemic. I used the Pocket app to download and read offline.
MOL was the best of the bunch for me, fantastic stuff. I subbed to the author's Patreon for a few months in lieu of being able to buy the book.
"The Blacktongue Thief" (Blacktongue #1) by Christopher Buehlman
The underdog, anti-hero style main character narrates a fast paced adventure to save a far off country from invasion while he lurches from disaster to disaster under the kosh of a world spanning mafiosa organisation, stopping only to allow random folks slap him in the face in return for a free beer (really).
The world feels a bit like the world of The Witcher, and world building is superb: plenty of detail and history that would support a number of trilogies or a longer series. I enjoyed it despite it being first person, which isn't my favourite mode. The book works both as a standalone novel and as the first of a trilogy and the biggest negative for me is the pace is just a little bit too fast, reminiscent of KJ Parker novels. I'm looking forward to the next in the trilogy. 4/5
Anyone read Mother of Learning?
Free here: https://github.com/asdkant/bookify-mol/releases
About 60% through "The Blacktongue Thief" (Blacktongue #1) by Christopher Buehlman
Enjoying it despite it being first person (not my preference). The world building is fantastic, interesting characters, and the plot is moving along briskly. I'll post a review when complete.
just finished that trilogy. Great series.
Different strokes for different folks. Hyperion was a 2/5 for me.
I'll see if I can explain that a bit more without spoilers... This is all very much prefaced with "IMO".
The individual stories are good, and I would enjoy them in a short story anthology. The container story world is just fabulous, I really enjoyed the scope and history. Even the storyteller characters are well done.
But, mix that all together in a Canterbury Tales frame, with a metric fucktonne of references to Keats and a deeply unsatisfying plot conclusion, that for me does not do it.
If you're a fan of classic literature, if you're one of the people who's actually read Ulysses rather than lying about it, then you'll love this. I'm sure there are other folks with a masochistic bent who also love to inflict books like this on themselves
But no, not for me :)
Hyperion is class ye are mad
Hyperion and the Three Body Problem both feel like books I ought to be reading, if I were a serious sci-fi fellow. Just never felt the interest in the either, having a small reservoir of patience for those more introspective, "cerebral" styles. Unless I'm mistaking both and their respective tones.
Hyperion was not for me at all, I understand why it appeals to a lot of folks, but I prefer something a bit more... plot driven. I'm not even sure how to express it.
Yeah Hyperion was just OK, well written, but very indulgent and the science was pretty hairy at times. Then it just goes a bit bonkers in book two, not even sure if I read the third book or not, but I'd kind of had enough. The series should have stopped after book one IMO.
The 3 body problem has an 18 billion year timeline and I enjoyed it much more. I suppose, it depends on what you find interesting. Not really big into poets rambling on for hundreds of pages.
Hyperion/endymion is by far my favourite series of all time ainec! i've read them so many times.
I've read the first 2 of the 3 body problem and whilst i really enjoyed the concept and story line, it was one of the slowest reads for me ever, and never bothered to read the 3rd one unfortunately.
* "A Civil Campaign" by Lois McMaster-Bujold, another Vorkosigan book. So as ever this was well written but it also wasn't what I expected. Instead of the usual smart story and intrigue, I got a romantic comedy. Yes, it was amusing in parts but not really what I wanted. Characters are as good as ever, and it is fun to see Miles flustered, but hopefully it gets back to the mix of action and story that I like.
* 'The Bone Ships' by RJ Barker, the first book in the Tide Child trilogy. This was interesting - nearly entirely set on sea, it's in a fairly original world where the main boats are made form the bones of sea dragons. It's a grim dark world but Barker's prose has a certain poetry and I really got a feel for the love of the open ocean. The characters took a bit of time to grow on me but the world's definitely interesting enough that I've moved on to the second book.
Hyperion those take a little effort
God I thought this thread was gone, had a hard time finding it since the site move.
Read
The three body problem trilogy. https://www.goodreads.com/series/189931-remembrance-of-earth-s-past I can totally recommend it, great stuff.
Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion - First book was good, but not sure if I'll continue the series.
not a new book but I see Rift War and Empire were optioned for TV. New production company, first 3 rift war and the 3 collabs with Wurts. Don't hold out a lot of hope for this.
Gave up on Stephenson a good few years ago, seems to have increasingly prioritised intellectual grandstanding over writing a decent story.
Expanse ran out of steam at some stage in the third book, imho
