Page 5 • Book recommendation (sci-fi) • Non-Gaming • Books • Eurogamer.net

PearOfAnguish 11 Mar 2009 10:54:10 7,573 posts
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Yes, he's awful.

CosmicFuzz 11 Mar 2009 13:42:39 32,632 posts
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PearOfAnguish wrote:
Just finished One Jump Ahead by Mark L. Van Name. It's not amazing, just fun pulpy sci-fi action. Nice easy read. On the last Takeshi Kovacs' novel now, Broken Angels was a fantastic follow-up to Altered Carbon. Have A Fire Upon the Deep and Across Realtime by Vernor Vinge in the queue, never read any Vinge but I've heard good things.

I loved Altered Carbon, will have to look out Broken Angels.

glaeken 11 Mar 2009 13:46:21 12,070 posts
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You also have Woken Furies which is the final Kovac's novel after Broken Angels.

Both sequels are good but slightly different to Altered Carbon as they are more out and out Sci/Fi.

President_Weasel 11 Mar 2009 17:39:39 12,355 posts
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Not to mention Market Forces, which was his first novel I think.

PearOfAnguish 13 Mar 2009 19:14:04 7,573 posts
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The Baen Free Library

Loads of free sci-fi books from one of the major SF publishers. There's stuff from Jerry Pournelle, Keith Laumer, Eric Flint, Fred Saberhagen and more.

PrincessKnight 13 Mar 2009 19:54:43 150 posts
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sirtacos wrote:
Anything by Isaac Asimov.

totally agree! Amazing!

jerrymanu 14 Mar 2009 08:27:37 3,115 posts
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I'm currently slogging through Kevin J Anderson's, Saga of Seven Suns . I think there are about 6/7 book it the series. I'm up to about book 5 I think. Its a pretty good read. Humans, human like aliens, weird uber aliens, robots, living elements, piracy, civil war, genetic breeding. Its all in there.

I'd pick it up if you like epic story telling on a VERY grand scale.

Deleted user 14 March 2009 09:04:25

President Weasel wrote:
Not to mention Market Forces, which was his first novel I think.

I thought 13/Black Man was just awful - so much I stopped reading half way through. Market Forces was actually a lot of fun - quite silly premis but with a lead character who reminded me strongly of Jason Statham :-)

His new Fantasy novel, The Steel Remains, was an interesting departure, although me being a pure-blooded hetero I could have done without the gay sex scenes. The story itself fell apart at the end - good beginning but the characters descended into type.

FairgroundTown 14 Mar 2009 09:09:30 2,522 posts
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Just finished the final part of A Time Odyssey (Clarke/ Baxter), and... WORST ENDING EVER. Actually, to be honest, the whole of the final book is pretty mediocre - like they ran out of story after part 2. But the ending? Honestly - imagine the worst ending you've ever read and double it! No closure, no explanation, stupid, stupid, stupid finally sentence. If you've read the first two books and are now thinking 'I must read part 3 to find out...' then you are going to be very disappointed. If you haven't read the other 2 books then you will be confused AND disappointed. Rest assured I was on the internet within moments registering my disgust!

(The only decent part of the 3rd book is the chapter where Baxter rips off one of his own short stories, so I hardly think it counts!)

FairgroundTown 14 Mar 2009 09:10:27 2,522 posts
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^ ^

/ Changes thread title to book unrecommendation

President_Weasel 14 Mar 2009 09:59:37 12,355 posts
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PearOfAnguish wrote:
The Baen Free Library

Loads of free sci-fi books from one of the major SF publishers. There's stuff from Jerry Pournelle, Keith Laumer, Eric Flint, Fred Saberhagen and more.

I'd heartily recommend the baen free library. They also sell DRM-free ebooks on their store. There is the occasional rabid libertarian "the space-UN are trying to take our space guns!" book in there but there's also a lot of decent cheap sci-fi in a convenient format. What's not to like?

PearOfAnguish 30 Mar 2009 12:06:49 7,573 posts
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Just finished Quarantine, as recommended in the first post, and it is indeed excellent, if somewhat mind-boggling in places, had to re-read several parts where they're discussing all the quantum metaphysics stuff.

PearOfAnguish 24 Apr 2009 10:37:26 7,573 posts
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Yeah Ender's Game is great, though the first is easily the best by miles.

Shame Orson Scott Card is a bit of a nob.

Deleted user 24 April 2009 10:57:38

After some recommendations for epic space-opera type stuff. Space battles etc. preferebly modern rather than older works.

Have read all Peter F. Hamilton's stuff, Walter Jon William's Dread Empire's Fall. So after something in that line.

Alas Amazon's genre book sections are rubbish these days for finding something that might be of interest. A shame as they used to be a very good way to browse.

boo 24 Apr 2009 11:01:50 13,901 posts
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(

Just ordered Egan's 'Quarantine' on the strength of the original post.

Have now just read further through the thread.

I've still got time to cancel - should I?

Deleted user 24 April 2009 11:05:32

Golden Torc Series by Julian May. Not sure if anyone has recommended that yet. It seems to be out of print, but you can get it second hand off Amazon. Well worth it.

boo 24 Apr 2009 11:09:37 13,901 posts
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AngeleDei wrote:
Golden Torc Series by Julian May. Not sure if anyone has recommended that yet. It seems to be out of print, but you can get it second hand off Amazon. Well worth it.

+1

/have probably got them in my loft if anybody really wants them and can't find them.

PearOfAnguish 24 Apr 2009 11:14:13 7,573 posts
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RichardDawkins wrote:
After some recommendations for epic space-opera type stuff. Space battles etc. preferebly modern rather than older works.

Iain M. Banks. Specifically, Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, Player of Games and Excession.

And they're not full of space battles, but you could also check out Old Man's War and their sequels by John Scalzi, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels and the aforementioned Ender's Game. Lots of action in those.

I'm actually struggling to think of many books that involve space battles as a focus, it tends to just be a small part. Banks springs to mind because the weapons and kooky AI of the ships makes it very memorable.

boo wrote:
Just ordered Egan's 'Quarantine' on the strength of the original post.

Have now just read further through the thread.

I've still got time to cancel - should I?

Why, what put you off? I loved it.

Bill Door wrote:
He's a mormon isn't he?

Have a read of this.

boo 24 Apr 2009 11:21:08 13,901 posts
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Re: Should I cancel Quarantine order?

PearOfAnguish wrote:

Why, what put you off? I loved it.

Otto wrote (on page 2 of thread):

I'm about half way through Quarantine. I'm finding it incredibly tough going. Essentially it's the equivalent of Bishop Berkeley's dialogues except instead of epistemology we're examining quantum physics. No characterisation to speak of, and not too much plot, just lots of rather artificial set pieces in which the main protagonist gets to discuss quantum physics with a variety of scientific types. It's really a glorified text book and I confess I'm really struggling to stay awake. The reveal had better be good ph4ge or I'll be coming after you. ;p

And apparently, by that point he'd already gone past the amazing 'reveal' without noticing...

PearOfAnguish 24 Apr 2009 11:24:47 7,573 posts
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Comes down to how much you're interested in quantum physics. I find it fascinating, if somewhat incomprehensible, so it was enough to keep me reading. The characters aren't anything special, but I found the plot (and its reveal) very entertaining.

boo 24 Apr 2009 11:41:26 13,901 posts
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/is fascinated by QM

/keeps order

pauleyc 24 Apr 2009 11:44:16 4,548 posts
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PearOfAnguish wrote:
Have a read of this.

Amazing, the term "train wreck" comes to mind, both with regard to Card and the interviewer. And yet the outcome is quite enlightening.

Anyway, I recommend Gateway by Frederick Pohl (but only the first book, the rest of the series is not really worth reading). Legend Entertainment made even two great IF games based on the books, the first one is available from the new HOTU.

phAge 24 Apr 2009 11:54:16 25,487 posts
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boo wrote:
(

Just ordered Egan's 'Quarantine' on the strength of the original post.

Have now just read further through the thread.

I've still got time to cancel - should I?

'Qurantine' is fucking awesome, 'Distress' somewhat less so, and I've given up on 'Diaspora' twice now, as it's simply too hard to understand to be much fun...

/is stupid

PearOfAnguish 24 Apr 2009 12:03:23 7,573 posts
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Gateway is fantastic, one of my all-time favourites.

Deleted user 24 April 2009 12:21:35

PearOfAnguish wrote:
*snip* some helpful advice

Cheers. Have already read the Halderman stuff and the Ender series.

Old Man's War looks interesting, second recommendation I've had for that today.

PearOfAnguish 24 Apr 2009 12:23:29 7,573 posts
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Old Man's War is one of the best sci-fi books of the last few years, IMO.

I want a BrainPal (TM).

Deleted user 24 April 2009 12:30:11

PearOfAnguish wrote:
Old Man's War is one of the best sci-fi books of the last few years, IMO.

I want a BrainPal (TM).

I'll take your word for it.

/orders

Deleted user 26 April 2009 22:11:22

If anyone like's 1950s Sci-fi, John Wyndham is a good bet.

'The kraken wakes', 'Day of the triffids' and 'The chrysalids' are all excellent, with kraken being my favourite.

Khanivor 27 Apr 2009 00:31:09 44,800 posts
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Greg Egan's books are fantastic but you have to bring your brain along for the ride. He's no hand-holder.

He has a collection of short stories out there which is stuffed with fantastic pieces of writing. He can make you feel a bit thick and very deficient in the imagination department.

Sycopat 18 May 2009 18:19:16 162 posts
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I liked Non-Stop (I think the author is Brian Aldiss...??) was interesting and surprising with quite a few awesome idea's in it as throwaway events... to the point it possibly suffers because of the amount of throwaway events...

Other awesome books I've already seen mentioned include flowers for algernon, the forever war, lord of light, the stars my destination, dune and probably a few others.

I also quite enjoyed the Hyperion books. Excellent space opera.

Currently reading(And enjoying) Make Room! Make Room! So far it seems like yet another reason to be thankful I don't really watch Charlton Heston movies...

Book recommendation (sci-fi) • Page 5