which, by the way, are not sad at all and are actually brilliant works of art.
Somebody recommend me something to spoil my brain with, I really like stuff by Larry Niven and Peter Hamilton..
- Reviews: * The Verve at New York WaMu Theatre, Mon 28 Apr
- Reviews: * Mogwai at London Queen Elizabeth Hall, Mon 12 May
- Reviews: * Subtle - ExitingARM
- Features: * The Great Escape 2008: the DiS preview
- Reviews: * Pendulum - In Silico
- Reviews: * Tindersticks at London Royal Festival Hall, Sat 03 May
- Reviews: * Adam Green, Noah & The Whale at Manchester Club Academy (Cellar), Fri 11 Apr
- Reviews: * Effi Briest at London Camden Barfly, Tue 22 Apr
- Reviews: * Cut Copy at London King's Cross Scala, Wed 23 Apr
- Reviews: * Frightened Rabbit at London Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, Thu 01 May
- Features: * Explosions In The Sky's guide to ATP
- Features: * Flight Of The Conchords: comedy Kiwis on their musical dabblings
- Reviews: * Late Of The Pier, The Displacements, A Place To Bury Strangers, Collapsing Cities at London Camden Barfly, Wed 07 May
- Reviews: * Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
- Features: * Crawling, talking: The Wave Pictures in conversation
- * Iron and Wine, Bon Iver @ Sheffield Leadmill, 14/05
- * Liars, Battles, Fuck Buttons, Dirty Projectors @ London Astoria, 14/05
- * Jay Reatard, Soiled Mattress and the Springs, Times New Viking @ London Barden's Boudoir, 14/05
- * Man Man, Bloodgroup @ Manchester Phoenix, 14/05
- * Black Lips @ London 100 Club, 15/05
- * The National @ Dublin Olympia, 15/05
- * Jens Lekman @ Glasgow Oran Mor, 15/05
- * the pAper chAse, Black Mountain, Vessels @ Leeds Cockpit, 15/05
- * The Raconteurs @ Liverpool Academy (Liverpool University), 15/05
- * Frightened Rabbit @ Dunfermline Carnegie Hall, 15/05
- * Caribou, Born Ruffians, Wildbirds & Peacedrums @ London King's Cross Scala, 15/05
- * The Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, Dirty Summer @ Dunfermline Carnegie Hall, 15/05
- * Glass Candy, Mike Simonetti @ Manchester Star & Garter, 15/05
- * Nasty Fest IX @ Leeds The Faversham, 17/05
- * Example, Bloodgroup, Christopher D. Ashley @ Brighton Pressure Point, 17/05
The Forever War- Joe Haldemann
Flowers For Algernon- Daniel Keyes (only loosely science fiction maybe, but still lovely)
I Am Legend- Richard Matheson (much better story than the film)
did you
buy some of those lovely coloured roundered-corner 'sci fi classics' too?
From the same collection; Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny is amazing, as is The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.
My copies of 'I Am Legend' and 'Flowers For Algernon' are from that series
:D
Vermillion Sands
by JG Ballard
Valis - PhilKDick
not sure what you mean by the "not sad" bit though - you won't exactly find lots of 'happy' sci-fi!
I was referring to the meaning of "sad"
as in looks of disgust and more LOLling when so much mention it to a lot of people.
That's what I meant.
Urusla K Le Guin...
An incredible writer. Sci-fi is a tool for her to explore sexuality, anarchism, capitalism, politics of identity and much more. The Dispossesed is my favourite novel, and everything I've read by her is stunning (I'm slightly less keen on the Earthsea books, perhaps).
I also recommend 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin: a forerunner to Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty Four.
Kurt Vonnegut and William K Dick need investigating also.
I'd forgotten about Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse 5, Breakfast of Champions and Hocus Pocus are all I've read but I really enjoyed all of them
We have shared a similar view, except I liked Earthsea.
...
I think he means saaaaad
as in geeky.
I like Rama by arthur C clarke, althought the second one is rubs.
Philip K Dick's short stories and Do Android's Dream of Electric sheep? or The Man in the high castle.
Starship troopers or something else by Robert Heinlein.
actually just read starship troopers
it will turn you into a fascist for a bit. scary!
this^
i just finished it and it was truly bizarre in places. still prefer the film. johnny rico number 1
Philip K Dick
^ these are all good, but nothing like Hamilton or Niven
Try Iain M. Banks if you haven't already, he does similar stuff to those two but much better, IMO. Consider Phlebas by him is a laugh, but others are probably 'better'.
Other than that, Michael Moorcock, 'Dancers at the End of Time' is the most amazing book I've read in a long time.
Where
would you say I started, with Banks?
a lot of his sci fi novels are related,
about an interstellar society called The Culture. there's an ordering here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture#Novels
Thanks,
my long haired friend.
I am presently at work but I have bookmarked this page.
Start with Consider phlebas
probably, it's the most regular one of his. Player of games is pretty sound as well though.
Excession is a bit of a headfuck.
Start
with Consider Phlebas as it explains about The Culture. The other Culture novels are better but will make less sense if you don't read the first one. After that the others can be read in any order.
Once you've read all the Iain M. Banks science fiction read the books he writes as just Iain Banks. All of them are brilliant. The mans a genius.
william gibson
philip k dick
both will bend your mind.
'Scientology' by L Ron Hubbard
It's a bit of a LOLfest.
Lint by Steve Aylett
It's a pastiche-biography of a Philip K.Dick type sci-fi writer called Jeff Lint, who has basically done everything/been everywhere.
It's very surreal, funny, full of weird aphorisms that actually make sense if you think about them:
'Don't stare into the abyss or the abyss will stare into you'
(there are much weirder, funnier quotes)
\2'Don't stare into the abyss or the abyss will stare into you' "
is Nietzsche.
and Baldur's Gate 2
just to satisfy the sci-fi geeks = fantasy geeks stereotype.
Also
The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem if you can find it. It's like Hitchhikers Guide but really philosphical and profound, and Polish, and from the Seventies.
PKD
is my personal fav.
Harlan Ellison is good for a laugh too.
H P Lovecraft
Godfather of sc-fi horror
I love a bit of lovecraft
don't read the mountains of madness first - it'll spoil the other ones.
Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin
She doesn't think she's Sci-Fi but she blatantly can be and this one has lots of good stuff in it.
I've had this recommended to me before
but I acquired a deep hatred for Margaret Atwood during my GCSEs which I'm struggling to let go of
You and me both, sunshine
Can't stand the bitch. That's GCSEs for you I suppose. We had to read The Handmaid's Tale or whatever the fuck it's called. Patronising pseudo-satirical feminist social commentary. Just the usual 'all men are bastards' arguments. It's amazing that feminism has any academic credibility at all after people like her and academics like Prof. Sally Alexander have abused and debased it.
But that's just me I suppose.
pop feminism
I think most of the handmaidens tale is awesome, with it's images of the rapid deconstruction of american civil liberties and the bits about the building of the fundamentalist state, isn't it just the ending thats a bit cack? That's the part where it all becomes hypocritical and the central character is revealed as less of a feminist and more of girl-power supporter in the spice girls sense? Shame really.
Will give the blind assasin a try though. The finest sci-fi book I've ever read is the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick.
Basically the Blind Assassin
is a sort of 50s tale with a Film Noirish feel combined with someone telling a sci-story. Um.
Gene Wolfe - Shadow of the Torturer
More Sci-fantasy than Sci-fi but... also the best novel you will ever read in any genre ever.
Is that AKA
the book of the new sun?
I started reading the first part a while ago, but I put it down. I might read it again. I should.
I just finished reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, which as a debut novel I thought was really good..
Yeah, its the first part of
'The Book of the New Sun'. A truly awesome series (which has also spawned 'The Book of the Long sun' and 'The books of the short sun'. If you like beautifully written epics that really make you think then go for it.
PKD FTW
Ubik is aceness. But so are most of his short stories and most of his novels.
I also agree with HP Lovecraft getting in on this thread.
Alastair Reynolds
is very good, the Inhibitors saga in particular (a bit like the Night's dawn books by Hamilton).
Someone mentioned it earlier, but the forever war is worth a look. Some really nice ideas, although i found it a bit...meh after a while.
Aha
jackpot. I read the first of the Night's Dawn books in the summer. It nearly killed me but it was brilliant. I can't face the second one quite yet, but soon..
snap
I only read THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION (which is one of my favourite book titles), but the next sci fi I read will be the second one. You know the third one had to be printed in a smaller font as otherwise the book would have had too many pages to be feasible bound in a paper back?
Look at the foundation saga by asimov too, the first 3 (foundation, foundation + empire, second foundation) are really short, but essential to anyone who likes space opera.
Well
I know I read somewhere that the Reality Dysfunction alone is longer than the entire Lord of the Rings, I dunno if that is true. But when something's that good, you don't care. There are parts in there which are pure evil. I'll read Neutromium Alchemist when I'm done with what I'm reading now...
Speaking of sadness
you may not mention where I got my new username from..
new username huh?
I won't then...but I think you've dropped a pretty big hint ;)
And now I don't have to repeat myself again
and I'm still not sure what the DEAL is with Laton anyway...
i need to read the synopsis
of RD before I go to the second one.
Same with neuromancer (I've got Mona Lisa Overdirve primed and ready to go, but I read neuromancer a while back, I've forgotten half the ins and outs)
There's a brilliant one on Wiki:
I only know this cause I need to do the same.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reality_Dysfunction#Plot_summary
i was just looking at that
then I noticed this thread had been updated :D
^^ I don't think Neuromancer and Mona Lisa are that close are they?
I thought it was a case of 'same world, different events'. I don't even know if it has any of the same characters.
Anyone? I've also just read Neuromancer, loved it, and would want to read MLO sooner if they are closely linked.
I don't know
I think it's shared universe, but even so, I've forgotten half of what's been explained already.
All Tomorrow's Parties is good by Gibson, the bridge 'trilogy' (same type thing I think). I read it for obvious reasons when i saw it :D
The Nights Dawn trilogy
frustrated me intensly. 4000 pages of brilliance and then 500 pages of getting himself out of a whole to end the thing.
It's not a mistake he has made elsewhere and the confederation novels are better in my opinion.
arsesticles
that's very similar to the inhibitors stuff by reynolds - really good stuff, then about 20 pages of 'oh i can't be fucked anymore, here, everything's solved'
it was pathetic.
I hate Alistair Reynolds
you get to the end of his books and it's like "...and?'. I've read the first two, and struggled to get halfway through the third without losing interest/the will to live.
just read the last 30 pages
and decide if it's worth it. I really enjoy a lot of his stuff, but he's more like a long runing soap (with no proper ending) than proper stories.
Banks is a good finisher I think.
I'm a massive Reynolds fan.
I love the darkness and style of his writing. But yes, the endings of the 'Revelation Space' series leave a lot to be desired.
I read 'Pushing Ice' though recently, which is a stand alone novel, and he did a lot better with the ending to that. There's still problems with it but it's well worth a read.
that's sitting on my shelf at the moment
my mate lent it to me, and I have a 5 way sci fi battle for my attention
Feersum Endjin (Banks)
Neutronium Alchemist (Hamilton)
Pushing Ice (Reynolds)
Mona Lisa Overdrive (Gibson)
Hyperion (Simmons)
I think I might do Mona Lisa (as it's short, and different) then Neutronium (as it's been too long)
DO HYPERION
Sorry, but that's an underrated book right there. You'll have to read the second one soon after though or fear losing the plot.
I'm also looking forward to Feersum Endjinn and it's phonetically spelled fun.
BAH
if I'd got this message yesterday I could have picked Hyperion up, I was at my friend's boat who has this. It'll have to wait a bit i guess...
Admittedly tt does drag at certain points
I haven't got round to reading the other two in the series yet.
i think the second one is actually better
I haven't reads the third yet (dunno if it's forever free then forever peace or vice versa)
I got the omnibus thing though, that might be why it dragged a bit. Worth a look though, he has nice ideas about relativity and what alien species might be like (written just after Nam)
HG Wells.....
'the first men in the moon' (i think, i've forgotten the exact title)
or
'the time machine'
'the chrysalids' - john wyndham (also 'the day of the triffids')
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
Fookin Ace
^5
^10
Day of the Triffids is one of my fave books ever
The Kraken Wakes is probably better-written, mind, but the plot isn't so good.
Peter Hamilton
is ace, I love trashy sci-fi. Have you read his new one yet? I'm waiting for the paperback..
I can't recommend China Mieville enough if you like this kind of thing, Perdido Street Station is fantastic. Really.
And I'd recommend Dan Simmons, start with Ilium/Olympos (roman mythology and the Trojan War meets sentient robots from Jupiter meets Shakespeare's The Tempest meets highly evolved humans from the future. It's one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read).
Also, Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon, violent cyberpunk type stuff).
He is brilliant.
Nope, I've only read part 1 of Night's Dawn, but I have part 2 waiting. Also on my shelf is The Dreaming Void in hardback which I bought cause it was half price in borders and looks swanky. I don't think the story is related to Night's Dawn though. And it doesn't look as long.
But The Reality Dysfunction had quite an effect on me, it completely restored my faith in the genre...
Ilium was cool
as was Olympos. I thought they dragged on a bit though, a bit disappointed by how 'easy' it was at the end. Setebos was a bit shit after all the hype.
I quite liked Ilium, but Olympos is unmitigated toss.
Seriously, it could have been like 250 pages shorter. He just draaaags it ooouuuut soooo pointlessly, which is a real shame cos I like some of the characters. Ending's gash too.
Sci fi authors really need to work on this
So many awesome space operas are fucked up by the really shit endings - and they almost always feel rushed, like the guy's got the whole book planned out on 2 pages, and when it comes to the end he/she pretty much just types it out word for word from his plot structure notes
Dreaming Void
is probably his best book, of what I've read. It's got a far better mix of info / action / story than his other books which spend ages drably reporting history before getting good. It also has a pleasant injection of craziness.
The story follows on from Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained, so if you're a big Hamilton fan you might want to read them first. It's not essential but is recommended.
The Dreaming Void
is the new one I meant. It's not related to the Night's Dawn ones, it's related to the Commonwealth (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) which is really good, a lot more err.. 'realistic' sci-fi than Night's Dawn (ie no spaceships with personalities etc!).
Part 2 of Night's Dawn is brilliant, it's just full scale war from start to finish (Aliens to RD's Alien).
Cool!
My girlfriends Dad bought me Legend by David Gemmell for Christmas, I promised I'd read that first.
Then Night's Dawn II.
.
"ie no spaceships with personalities etc!"
The Liveship Traders - but in space.
have you read hyperion?
i've heard it's good, better than the trojan stuff many say
It is definately.
But I've already praised it once in this multifaceted thread.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlien
also his other stuff, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, Phillip K. Dick, Neal Stephenson's sci-fi stuff (the Diamond age, Interface, Snow Crash), Kurt Vonneghut, Ray Bradbury (that's tough going though).. Loads of others...
starship troopers
is a pretty average book.
Stranger in a strange land is by far his best book.
and anything gibson
ASIMOV..!
Dune by Frank Herbert
the first two especially. i thought it was getting a bit silly in the third but those first two are fantastic.
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.
sci-fi and humour combine in a way that's actually good.
Yes, well
Terry Pratchett does that too.
hmm
Use of Weapons - Iain Banks
Foundation/I, Robot - Good ol' Isaac
The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
A Scanner Darkly - K. Dick
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
If you like Hamilton's stuff you'll probably get a kick out of Stephen King's sci-fi: Dreamcatcher and The Running Man are both good.
also
the first two Red Dwarf books, Infinity Welcomes... and Better Than Life. I reread them recently and I'd forgotten both how funny and dark they were.
has anyone mentioned Steve Aylett yet?
If you like PKD and Alfred Bester and people like that then I would recommend Lint which is a fake autobiolgraphy of an unhinged sci-fi author.
It is genuinely insane/genius (not misplaced) and I think you do need to be able to cope with deeply odd and tangential books and ideas to enjoy him.
It is hilarious though and completely unique. It certainly isn't sci-fi comedy in the vein of Douglas Adams.