Science/Fantasy fiction bukes (1 Viewer)

[timbot]

Gene Wolfe's Shadow of The Torturer is really well written. I must try to get more of his stuff.

I just finished reading the series this is part of (The Book of the New Sun). It is fantastic. I dont know how I have been reading sci-fi for years and never come across him. Really great.

Anyone get into Gene Wolfe obsessively?

There is an awful lot of work to be done to understand what is happening in the book I think and I have only just started to try and unravel what is happening in it!

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i just read Peace by gene wolf (after timbot going on about him...) and it was deadly alright, though not very sci-fi/fantasy at all, more meloncholy straight fiction with the odd strange bit. i'll definetly be reading more of him though.


has anyone read michael moorcock? i just read one called The Shores of Death and it was a load of shite, i dunno if i should just give up on him now.

 

[guy of the tiger]

has anyone read Ringworld? any use?

 

[theoootini]

i just read Peace by gene wolf (after timbot going on about him...) and it was deadly alright, though not very sci-fi/fantasy at all, more meloncholy straight fiction with the odd strange bit. i'll definetly be reading more of him though.


has anyone read michael moorcock? i just read one called The Shores of Death and it was a load of shite, i dunno if i should just give up on him now.

moorcock ain't a very lyrical writer but his "behold the man" is a slight but good read...

 

[magicbastarder]

finished matter by banks the other day. thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Cormcolash]

Right - Gene Wolfe is fuckin great. The Book of the New Sun series is a total masterpiece, absolutely amazing books. The Fifth Head of Cerberus is great too. I read the first book of his most recent series, The Knight I think it is, and it's class as well.

Takes a lot of influence from Jack Vance in style and use of vocabulary. I would recommend any of Vance's stuff, he's my favourite writer actually, I think all his books are brilliant basically! The Dying Earth is a good place to start, or see if you can pick up The Cadwell Chronicles, they're EXTREMELY difficult to get hold of though! Actually go for the Demon Princes series instead, they're fucking amazing, The Face and The Book of Dreams have two of the best villains of all time if you ask me.

I really liked The Stars My Destination. Gully Foyle is one of the best anti-heroes ever, a total bad-ass, and I always love books with anti-heroes for the most part!

Moorcock - Hit and miss. Has a vast catalogue of books, and it's impossible to tell which are the good ones and which are the shit ones. Just hope for the best really!

Ursula LeGuin - The Earthsea series is brilliant. Haven't enjoyed any of her other stuff, particularly didn't like her sci-fi stuff.

Frederik Pohl - Gateway is a great read alright. Another must-read is The Space Merchants, co-written with Kornbluth, great book. I've actually really enjoyed every Pohl book I've read.

Asimov - Foundation is easily one of his best books. The first three books in that series are very good, it goes a bit downhill after that although the rest of the series is still quite readable. He gets a bit tangled up in his own plot though I think.

Ringworld - Read 1 or 2 of the books a good while back, wasn't really into them. Dunno why, just didn't really enjoy them for some reason.

Sounds like some people here should check out Stand on Zanzibar by John Bruner, amazing book. He's a very good writer from what I've read of him.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is class. I haven't read the sequels yet, have to get round to that at some point. Also The Long Habit of Living is very good although the end is quite bizarre and a bit out of keeping with the rest of it. Strange thing, apparently Haldeman has got shit over the last few years. I must say, I read a book of his, Camouflage, recently, written late 90s, and it's pretty bollocks alright.

Fantasy - Right now the Steven Erikson Malazan Book of the Fallen series is the best thing around I reckon. Fucking class books that make Feist look shite. And let's face it, Feist's most recent series, has actually been shite. Badly written guff.
Also check out Joe Abercrombie's series The First Law, kind of like Steven Erikson on a smaller scale, very dark and funny and well-written too, excellent books.

Right that post is long enough.

 

[photon]

has anyone read Ringworld? any use?

I really loved Larry Niven's "Known Space" stuff back when I was a teenager, mostly 'cause it's pretty hard SF -- lots of maths and physics involved. I seem to remember thinking that his short stories were better than his novel-length books (like Ringworld).

But I haven't read him (or virtually any SF) for almost 25 years now, so all that is based purely on memory. It may very well have dated quite badly for all I know.

 

[guy of the tiger]

I really loved Larry Niven's "Known Space" stuff back when I was a teenager, mostly 'cause it's pretty hard SF -- lots of maths and physics involved. I seem to remember thinking that his short stories were better than his novel-length books (like Ringworld).

Ill have to see if they have it in the library. My motivation for reading it is simply that I saw an amazing painting of one. Maths & physics don't generally make great bedtime reading for me though!

 

[timbot]

I really loved Larry Niven's "Known Space" stuff back when I was a teenager, mostly 'cause it's pretty hard SF -- lots of maths and physics involved. I seem to remember thinking that his short stories were better than his novel-length books (like Ringworld).

But I haven't read him (or virtually any SF) for almost 25 years now, so all that is based purely on memory. It may very well have dated quite badly for all I know.

Well, the beauty of Gene Wolfe is that he was an engineer and so there is alot of science buried in his work.

Shaney, Peace is really his only non-sci-fi piece. Try Book of the New Sun (which I have been raving about to all and sundry). Great book and not straight ahead sci fi.

I read Gateway and though I enjoyed it I couldn't put it up there with any of the greats. It seemed to me to just be one man's struggle from humble beginnings to try and make something more of himself - set in space. Or am I missing something important about it?

 

[theoootini]

Stand on Zanzibar by John Bruner,

reading this now. fantastic stuff.

 

[timbot]

I got a loan of Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon from Ootini and read Starmaker by him as well. Really beautiful sci-fi. They are both about races of people rather than individuals and are really wonderful reads...

 

[Cormcolash]

I read Gateway and though I enjoyed it I couldn't put it up there with any of the greats. It seemed to me to just be one man's struggle from humble beginnings to try and make something more of himself - set in space. Or am I missing something important about it?

Well I thought the whole point of the book was to deal with the psychology behind what happened to the guy, and that's why I thought it was great. But also there is a good amount of build-up to the actual event as well, and that gives a bit of tension which makes it great to read too.

 

[timbot]

Well I thought the whole point of the book was to deal with the psychology behind what happened to the guy, and that's why I thought it was great. But also there is a good amount of build-up to the actual event as well, and that gives a bit of tension which makes it great to read too.

That is fair enough, I guess I think with alot of Sci Fi I like the idea has to be something that couldn't be easily expressed in another form. Whereas Gateway, as much as I enjoyed it, could have been set in the Wild West or in modern times and the same story elements would have applied. That is why I was wondering if there was a sci-fi element to it that I had missed (like he is not really there at all or he never made any trips or whatever...). Still a good book though and an enjoyable read.

Actually, on the topic, has anyone read The World that Jones builtby Philip K Dick? It is not one of the later books (like VALIS) but it is I think the best executed straight ahead sci-fi book he has written. It even has a decent ending!

 

[Cormcolash]

I actually haven't read any Philip K Dick books because I'm not really interested in him. I'd rather watch Total Recall!

 

[timbot]

I actually haven't read any Philip K Dick books because I'm not really interested in him. I'd rather watch Total Recall!

Well, if you like classic sci fi read one of his earlier books and later books like A Scanner Darkly, Unik, VALIS, etc are all just great books. Flow my tears is a good halfway point between earlier style and later style. But if you like Sci-Fi you should really check him out...

 

[Cormcolash]

Na seriously like, I'm just not interested in him! I'm probably just being facetious because everytime someone who doesn't actually read sci-fi talks about sci-fi, they always mention some Philip K Dick book, but I'm more interested in reading loads of stuff from other authors that I'm already into.

 

[theoootini]

thats just fucking stupid.

 

[nEiLo]

thats just fucking stupid.

yep

 

[Cormcolash]

Hardly, there's a million good sci-fi authours I've already been reading, and I have tonnes of books to get through by most of them sitting in my house already. Why would I go out and get Philip K Dick stuff when I already have amazing books I want to read sitting in my house?

 

[timbot]

Hardly, there's a million good sci-fi authours I've already been reading, and I have tonnes of books to get through by most of them sitting in my house already. Why would I go out and get Philip K Dick stuff when I already have amazing books I want to read sitting in my house?

But why would you deny yourself the chance to read another amazing book? Besides, it is hardly Philip K Dick's fault he is one of the flagship authors of sci-fi. No-one would suggest that you shouldn't read Hunter S Thompson when reading New Journalism because he is so well known...