Eddings?
One of my introductions to fantasy were these books. Shame the author was a horrible person.
Sanderson does some interesting short novellas if you wanted to take a break from the depth of the series.
Another personal fav of mine if your interested in lengthy series is the David Eddings series the belgariad and the mallorean.
Next on my list! or I might get lost in the stormlight archives for a little while first. about to start the last mistborn book so I have a few days to decide!!
They are fantastic books.
The wax and wayne books after are worth reading as well
Have recently started reading the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson and I have to say it is what I needed. The last few years reading has not been very easy for me but this series has done wonders. I'm not out of the woods yet I still have an awful lot to work on but I will never stop being amazed at what a good book can do for your mood. Hope all are well :) stay safe
Not sure this qualifies - Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.
So far it's strictly speaking not been science fiction but he is a sci-fi author and its sailing close to the wind. Blade Runner vibes only today. First thing is the verdict - its brilliant IMO.
We follow Cayce a 32 year old New Yorker with a neurosis or two but otherwise firmly and confidently planted in the world who has a certain 'gift'. She's a 'sensitive' of sorts, recognising instinctively things that work and that don't. Specifically in the world of creative, marketing, branding, advertising. Her word counts she doesnt even have to justify herself. Pattern Recognition. It gives her a privileged freelance position where she's not amassing riches but she is at the same time moving in that comfortable corporate city hopping existence of board rooms, exclusive hotels and first class flights and never worrying about a Dollar or two.
Her latest contract is with 'Blue Ant' a slightly weird advertising company which eventually connects with one of her private pursuits. Which is a fascination with mysterious releases of random but quality produced video fragments which may or may not be assembled to some masterpiece eventually. These fragment called the 'footage' excite an increasing number of followers around the world mostly onlinos like ourselves and the sheer power and subliminal attraction of it attracts in return the attention of advertising and marketing. Re: Blue Ants. And this is where weird starts turning into dangerous.
I'm about halfway through and I find its masterfully written. Real Gibson but better even than 'the Sprawl'. I'm absolutely loving it and it has a definite sci-fi vibe around it even though it plays in nowadays world and technically nothing has surfaced yet that is strictly speaking future stuff. I cant wait to get back to it and already glad to have learned there are two sequels building a 'Blue Ant' series.
Phillip Finch
Raising the Dead: A True Story of Death and Survival
Just starting this on the back of a recommendation. As a severe claustrophobic I've no idea what to expect
EDIT: just realised this shoudlnt be in the sci-fi section… my bad
Ended up watching the first three series of the Handmaids Tale and then reading the book. The first series was quite entertaining which is where it parted with the book. The book is far tighter with a more interesting ending, the series went the way of so many series taken from limited source material, starting well then drifting off, getting a bit repetitive, filling the time with dramatic pauses and ultimately becoming as dull as dishwater. Will definitely be reading more of Atwood though.
Great read, i've been working my way through many of his books over the last couple of years and enjoyed them all so far. Currently on the third in the sailing to Sarantium trilogy.
GG Kay - Lions of Al Hassan - loving it.
Finished Cryptonomicon at long last, it was a relief tbh, did not enjoy that all, it took me a month! Usually with his books I read them in 3 days because I cant put them down.
I was bored down at the parents so started reading the Second Apocalypse series again by Bakker, completely sucked in again already, I honestly think they're not just the best sci-fi/fantasy ever written, its one of the greatest pieces of literature full stop, sometimes you have to go back and reread a whole chapter because the prose and everything else was just so epic, nothing comes close.
Reading Sanderson - I enjoy his worlds a lot. Will get the new one next week and then take a break. Will prob go back to GG Kay. Although I have noted the Connie Wills books in here
I quite liked cryptomnicom, loved anathem, but seveneves I absolutely hated. Like I would actually be reasonably interested in a lecture on orbital mechanics, but not one that goes on for however many pages it was stretched out for in that book! And it should have been broken into two books and the final part just cut out entirely imo.
Sometimes the mood you are in when you read a book makes them hit you differently i suppose.
Looking back at my last post i did read the wager and it was pretty good, though a bit of a slog in parts. Then finished the published books in red rising series and i like them. Started the faithful and the fallen by John Gwynne which i also am enjoying, currently half way through book 2.
Also read prophet song during this period, didn't really see it as fantasy/sci fi tbh but i did enjoy it. Another non-fantasy book i am thinking of reading next is Demon Copperhead, my wife loved it and a few others have recommended it to me independently.
Agree to disagree on Cryptonomicon, really enjoyed it, couldn't put it down. I've been jonesing on Connie Willis, now reading her 2 parter on time travel to the Blitz- Blackout (great), All clear (not done yet, not as great as Blackout.)
Also am reading some short stories by her, "Ado" if you can find it in a collection is, well, kind of timely. Asimov apparently said it was one of the best stories he read in Asimov's magazine, which is where it was first published. "Last of the Winnebagos" is an all-time great and again, feels timely.
Absolutely loved Station Eleven. Sea of Tranquility by the same author leans more heavily into the sci-fi but sadly isn't near as good a book.
Also loved Oryx & Crake, which is part of a trilogy (Maddaddam) but I was underwhelmed by the second part, to the extent I never read the third one. She's a great writer though so I'll probably give it a go at some point.
Prophet Song has been on my shelf for a while but given recent events, I'll think I'll leave it there for a while longer. I prefer my fiction to be a bit more fiction-y.
I thought Prophet Song was a bit overhyped, flashes of brilliance but mostly a bit too vague, should have gone into more detail about what was happening to the country and why, that would have been amazing, as it was there was zero mention of what party was in power or who was fighting or any place outside of Dublin or anything like that, it made the whole experience a bit frustrating imo.
Im reading Cryptonomicon at long last after carrying it around with me for many years, its a 3/5 so far for me, lots of interesting bits especially the WWII cryptography stuff but the author is an awful waffler and he's at his absolute worst here. Seveneves and Anathaem remain 2 of my all time sci-fi favs so Ill stick with it in the hope of some kind of payoff, 1200 pages though!
A few more recent reads,
Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles. Much as I try not abandon a book without finishing it, this was a no hoper for me. Each chapter is written twice, once in Orcadian followed by the same chapter in English. Unfortunately, with my ageing Kindle, skipping chapters was laborious, though not quite as tough as reading in text in Orcadian. Even sticking to the English, I found it unrewarding and ditched it. My mistake for not reading the reviews in more detail before buying.
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Thoroughly enjoyed this book featuring a travelling symphony in post apocalyptic world, skipping back to the events that gave rise to collapse of society. Plenty of action and grimness but full of hope at the same time. I believe it has been serialized for the screen to must keep an eye out for it.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Another post apocalyptic romp, somewhat grimmer than Station Eleven but also a great read. Again a mix of before and after, with the protagonist believing himself to be the last living person vaguely tasked with looking after a small community of genetically enhanced rather dull replacement humans. I believe Atwood refers to her work as speculative fiction rather than sci-fi but this had all the elements of a great sci-fi read for me. Didn't know much about her other than having the Handmaids Tale recommended to me as one to watch, I'll definitely pick up a few more of her books.
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. More dystopian nastiness, this one probably is better described as speculative fiction than sci-fi, with the outbreak of civil war in Ireland as the far right come into power. Brilliantly written but utterly grim, reminded me a bit of The Road. I admired it and found it a compelling read but can't say I enjoyed it. A number of reviews described it as transposing what's happening in Gaza to Dublin, which to me isn't quite right but not too far wrong either.
well just reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.
and I see a discussion on the storm light series.
it's not the height of fantasy but readable imho.
I'm about half way through book two now. It's ok. Darrow is still not very likable but there's less of the internal self-flagellation monologues. The world building up to this point is absolutely rudimentary, maybe it will branch out.
There have been a few points where the author has done something I wouldn't expect from a book of middling quality - has a character ask a really smart question or do something tricky. A lot of weak authors (including a lot of the highly regarded fantasy authors, not so much in sci-fi) never have their characters do this sort of thing because it's hard to write your way out of things like antagonists being clever. This is giving me some hope for the series and the pacing is pretty good which is keeping me interested for the moment.
I dropped the series about a third into book two. I kept hearing it got much better but I really hated Darrow and didn't find the lauded world building particularly interesting or deep.
Reading a Master of Djinn, P. Djeli Clark. Sort of a steampunk detective story set in genie-inhabited Cairo in 1912. Good so far. I liked his Ringshout (KKK as actual demons in the american deep south). Alternate fantasy history seems to be his thing.
Of the sci-fi stuff, Carey's Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds are great reads, combining a lot of speculation on different types of AI with plenty of plot and action. Having previously read Carey's Koli trilogy (also great fun), I find his books are improving over time though Girl with all the gifts is probably still my favorite.
Yes, loved them, never made the connection with Girl With All the Gifts until you said it, I do see them getting slated in reviews and on Reddit though, I dont understand it.
Anyone read the Red Rising series? I'm nearly finished the first one. It's not bad, I'll probably carry on although I would be hoping it could go up a level or two. It's pretty gruesome in a way I don't particularly enjoy is an issue
Haven't been posting here much at all in the last couple of years but read a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy which I'll break down into a number of posts as I get the time. Looking at my Kindle library, I seem to have read a lot of M.R. Carey and Guy Gavriel Kay, both of whom I find dependable for page turning enjoyment.
Hard to know what to say about Gut Gavriel Kay, other than I've enjoyed everything I've read so far (a quick tot shows 13 books to date). Favorite is still Under Heaven and the weakest (though still fun) is the Summer Tree trilogy. Most of his stuff is better described as speculative historical fiction, set in an alternate past universe, with a small amount of fantasy in the mix. I'm surprised film and TV makers haven't latched onto his work as he's a master of complex multi-threaded plots, political intrigue and character development. Far better that G.R.R. Martin in my opinion with a ton of excellent material to work with.
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch, damn good sci-fi mystery thriller about the US Navy and other agencies investigating a forthcoming apocalypse, loved it.
I read the trilogy a few months back. Not bad, with a lot of oblique references to actual historical events but the main character was just a bit too miserable for my liking. Fair enough, in that if you read the surrounding history on the opium wars, boxer rebellion and rape of Nanking, there was an exceptional amount of misery and atrocity. Being a big fan of Guy Gavriel Kay's historical fantasy, these were a bit flat by comparison. Also started into 'Babel' by the same author and have put it down for now for similar reasons.
A writer my wife glommed me on to, Connie Willis. Amazing record of winning Hugo and Nebula award winners - has won the most major SF awards, and the most dual awards (Hugo and Nebula for the same work.)
Just finished "The Doomsday Book." Wish I'd read it before Covid, kind of prescient though it's about the Black Death. Highly recommended.
Sorry for the cross post, but I think this thread is more active than the deals on.
Steven Erikson's Malazon series is on sale under the Kindle Daily Deals. 99p for all the books except book 5 and 10.
Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway.
Nick Harkaway is new to me and apparently another pen-name for Aidan Truhen, but I havent read anything from him yet either.
As the title suggests its a crime noir thriller and it's set in the not too distant future where a few thousand super rich enjoy some sort of immortality drug that lets you start over just after puberty by resetting your body cells. The downside is that every time you use the drug you grow a bit bigger, so with every treatment you turn more and more into a physical giant. The drug is billionaire expensive so there are only a couple of thousand 'Titans' around and the main police consultant/detective protagonist - who's not a Titan himself, but has deep connections - investigates when one of them gets murdered under murky circumstances.
It's written in the first person and uses noir prose, reminds me a bit of William Gibson even. Despite that it goes down easy enough and it's after catching me as the story unfolds. It's a bit dark and mysterious and very enjoyable. I would absolutely recommend it. Will probably try other books from the author after this.
