scifi book recommendations

[tangent23]

the December issue of wired magazine[online version here] has a feature on Philip K Dick's links to films, including an interview with uma thurman [who is on the cover] in regards to John Woo's Paycheck...

also: i just got the second richard morgan book Broken Angels so i'll report here when i finish it...

anyone got any comments about neal stephenson's quicksilver [that isn't already covered in the dedicated thread?

[tangent23]

just finished Broken Angels, not as good as the first, but still a great read...the first is more a dectective-style narrative, whereas the second is more a straightforward journey/intrigue...

the main character [in both novels],ex-Envoy[=hardnut] takeshi kovacs, is enlisted as a mercenary in a small world conflict between secessionists and the greater Protectorate, with the ever present corporate Cartels also jockeying for position. kovacs gets involved with a scheme to recover and claim an ancient martian artifact buried in one of the war zones...

fast paced, in the tradition of gibson's neuromancer but harder edged, more military based, lots of killing, death technologies, commentary on war, genetics, consciousness downloading, virtual environments...

[(>_<)]

ender's game

[tangent23]

i just finished Jasper FForde's [The Well of Lost Plots] which is light reading but very enjoyable third book in a series about an alternate england where literary characters and culture is mainstream, where the fictional world is as real as this one [with some cross-world jumping]...

very tongue in cheek, post-chaos ideas...if you have a 'classical' upbringing or interest [as well as sf of course] then i think you will enjoy this series.

his homepage is a laugh, too:

example from the book upgrade section of the site...

On this page:
The Well of Lost Plots V1.1 (UK Edition)
To upgrade to WOLP V1.1, please follow instructions below:
_
As is customary with early book releases, there are a few bugs that made it through the rigorous testing procedures for which Fforde books have not become legendary. The following instructions allow you to update your edition to an all new V1.1.
1: Editions covered by this upgrade: All Hodder hardback and softback editions. ON NO ACCOUNT attempt to upgrade any advanced reader's copies or US editions; a 'deep text crash' may result which will render your book unreadable and may well wipe out all the planet's fiction.
2: Earth the book by touching it lightly against a dictionary.
3: If you are running your library on the outdated SCROLL V7.3 or PAPYRUS 2.8, please upgrade immediately to BOOK 8.3 which is available by downloading HERE .
4: If you are running the Beta Version of BOOK V9 or "UltraWord™" as it is known and have Anti-GrammasitePro™ or ReadZip™ activated, please disable before upgrade. Third party hardware ancillaries such as bookmarks, pressed flowers, old bus tickets, prophylactics, etc, must also be removed.
5: Using a fine black pen make the following corrections:
i: Go to page 79 and 170 and where it says 'Stalingrad' change to 'Tsaritsyn'. Of course, with Russia a Czarist state, Stalin would not have had a city named after him. To be honest 'Stalingrad' was chosen for it's dramatic associations rather than for accuracy and 'Tsaritsyn' just doesn't really cut the mustard. Mind you, would Hitler have invaded Russia if it had been a monachy? Probably not. *sigh*
ii: Go to page 99 and delete 'mid' from the line: "garden of mid-nineteenth century prose". Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811.
iii: Go to page 100 and delete 'three mice sitting in a circle eyeing a farmer's wife who was standing next to' so the sentence reads: "Perhaps I was being slow, but it was only when I saw a large egg with arms and legs that I realised who they were." The mice couldn't eye anyone - they're blind.
...
6: Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of The Well of Lost Plots V1.1. To fully authenticate your copy download the upgrade sticker file by clicking HERE. Print out the download and affix it to the title page of your copy. Thank you for using the jasperfforde.com upgrade service.

silly but good. <<i think the US version hasn't been released yet, but the first two are available.

anyway...

started quicksilver [neal stephenson] and enjoying it...

[Evil Mastermind]

Any and all Stanislaw Lem you can get your hands on.

Especially: Cosmicomics, Memoirs found in a bathtub, Pirx the pilot, Solaris...


Good luck

[tangent23]

i been reading a lot more again lately...

just finished:

quicksilver [neal stephenson]: long, convoluted, but enjoyable, more historical fiction than sf, but still has that same humour and depth as seen in cryptonomicon....has it's own thread here: http://giantrobot.com/forums/showthr...highlight=neal

solaris: very interesting, a bit technically expository at times, took me a couple of goes to get into, but by the end i was getting pretty involved with the characters and scenario...

polystom [Adam Roberts]: mostly interesting for the first 2 thirds in an 'alternate reality' way, describing the life and intrigues surrounding the main character, Polystom, part of the ruling class in a social structure which spans six planets in the solar system, and where there is air between planets [so it is possible to fly biplanes and dirigbles as interplanetary transport].

just as i was starting to get bored, though, the last third kicks into high gear and begins to totally flip out [in a good way]. i won't say more 'cause it would spoil it...fun read.

a more comprehensive review here: http://www.scifidimensions.com/Jul03/polystom.htm

hmm...i need a new book now...

[shammy718]

ursula k le guin - left hand of darkness

[Denstradamus]

Samuel Delaney and Octavia Butler. This thread kicks so much ass.

[KING]

just finished reading these 2:

"more than human" by theodore sturgeon

and

"picnic at the roadside" by arkady and boris strugatsky


I liked them both. The later one is the book andrei tarkovsky losely based his film "stalker" on.

[tonybricker]

Originally posted by (&gt;_&lt
ender's game

I am reading book three of Card's "Alvin Maker" series and the series is fantastically written and original. It's got me hooked.

I don;t remember if I've posted in this thread or not, but a few months ago I read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Phillip Pullman and loved it to death. Can't recommend it enough.

[CaptainPajamaShark]

i'm currently reading John W. Campbell's 'Who Goes There?' which The Thing movie is based on.

[shampoo]

reading ender's shadow right now, my bf recommended it and said it was even better than enders game...
im skeptical about that, liver, i saw you mention you couldnt recommend it, what say you?

havent read too much sci fi in general, just got neuromancer and mona lisa overdrive...

read the whole dune series (i think i just get obsessed and devour whole series at a time)
read the whole enders game series
read all the hitchhiker series and the two books in the dirk gently series (are there more?)
about to reread my fave childrens sci fi books, the tripod trilogy, by john christopher.

[enderzero]

Recently read William Gibson's Pattern Recognition which is said to be his first contemporary (non-sf) book. It is Gibson at his best for sure. His prose is elequent and technology related subject matter is unlikely to disappoint his SF fans.

Mentioned right off the bat but another vote for Neal Stephenson. If you haven't read Cryptonomicon (also not SF strictly speaking) then put down whatever you have going right now and go get it.

[shammy718]

^nice.

[RocketOtter]

Check out books by David Brin, just about all fo them are worth the read.

Also most of the works of James P. Hogan are certainly worth it as well. The "Giant's Series", "The Proteus Operation", and "Journey to Yesteryear" are all great reads.



This is the book cover from the first of the "Giant's Series". I was 11 and a sucker for cool cover art on Sci-Fi books.

"The Cassini Division" is also another good read, can't remember the author though.