What are you reading?

[dubkitty]

Leaving The 20th Century: The Incomplete Work Of The Situationist International.

[weebles]

Just downloaded the first Hyperion novel. We will see how it goes. Anyone have particularly strong feelings about it?

[coldbrightsunlight]

It is very very good and those are my feelings

[mr. sound boy king]

There is some really good shit in here and I'm only 50 pages in.

Pessoa rules.

I've been on this every night for a while:

[Dapper Bandit]

It is very very good and those are my feelings

Those are my feelings too, it's a properly super book with some genuine "oh shit" moments. Considering most scifi novels that hit the 500 page mark are usually awful (yeah, I said it) this is one that feels like it without an ounce of fat that could have been trimmed

[coldbrightsunlight]

I have a pretty high tolerance for sometimes pulpy sci fi that isn't that great but is enjoyable enough anyway.

But Hyperion is a good book by anyone's standard I think.

[Bloodhammer]

I'm currently re-reading The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. I'm about halfway through The Confusion right now. The scale of this story is amazing. I rushed through it the first time and missed/forgot a lot.



In NOOK format, each book is around 1000 pages, so it'll likely be spring before I finish and move on to the next thing. LOL

Speaking of which, I'm thinking about starting on James Clavell's Asian Saga novels afterward. I'm planning to read them in (internal) chronological order, starting with Shōgun.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Interesting. I've only read Seveneves by Stephenson but I definitely want to check out other books.

[lordgalvar]

Snow Crash is great. Last time I read it at least around 20 years ago.

I was reading sword and citadel twofer....kept getting in loop of reading a bit, forgetting about it, trying again. So I've read 20 pages 6 or 7 times. Finished all of the game of thrones books in 2 weeks a few months back...they were entertaining.

Got Dhalgren or whatever it's called on que.

Probably will just got read some Pope and call it a year.

[Bloodhammer]

Interesting. I've only read Seveneves by Stephenson but I definitely want to check out other books.

I've read a few. Seveneves wasn't his best IMO, but not bad either.

NSFW: show

I really like the first part about getting into space and the attrition down to seven women. The 4000 years-in-the-future part seemed rushed, though.

Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are historical fiction with sci-fi elements (and a couple of made-up islands) - The Baroque Cycle being a prequel to Cryptonomicon. Both stories have to do with cryptography and computation as central themes. TBC also has a lot to do with the transition from feudalism and alchemy to modern western society and the rise of science.

Snow Crash is a really good cyberpunk novel taking place in an alternate-history early 1990's that (sometimes hilariously) anticipates what the internet will be like. The sillyness doesn't detract from the story, though. It actually makes it as enjoyable as it is. I'd say it's a must-read if you're going to get into Stephenson.

Anathem is a sort of sci-fi epic with a high fantasy type of setting, in that it takes place on another world very much just like Earth, but it's not at all a Tolkien or Martin fantasy world with dragons and elves and such. It's another version of Earth in which the schools of the ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, etc. (but with different names) never faded into history and continue on within a separate/special class of (otherwise ordinary) people. I won't spoil the plot, but it's, well, epic. LOL There are some made-up words, but they aren't overdone IMO like in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.

Reamde (the typo is intentional) is a present-day thriller having to do with a ransomware virus aimed at exploiting gamers that winds up on a flash drive and blows up into an international incident. I can't really say much more about it without spoiling it, but it's intense. Think spy movie, but bigger.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Interesting. I've only read Seveneves by Stephenson but I definitely want to check out other books.

I've read a few. Seveneves wasn't his best IMO, but not bad either.

NSFW: show

I really like the first part about getting into space and the attrition down to seven women. The 4000 years-in-the-future part seemed rushed, though.

Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are historical fiction with sci-fi elements (and a couple of made-up islands) - The Baroque Cycle being a prequel to Cryptonomicon. Both stories have to do with cryptography and computation as central themes. TBC also has a lot to do with the transition from feudalism and alchemy to modern western society and the rise of science.

Snow Crash is a really good cyberpunk novel taking place in an alternate-history early 1990's that (sometimes hilariously) anticipates what the internet will be like. The sillyness doesn't detract from the story, though. It actually makes it as enjoyable as it is. I'd say it's a must-read if you're going to get into Stephenson.

Anathem is a sort of sci-fi epic with a high fantasy type of setting, in that it takes place on another world very much just like Earth, but it's not at all a Tolkien or Martin fantasy world with dragons and elves and such. It's another version of Earth in which the schools of the ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, etc. (but with different names) never faded into history and continue on within a separate/special class of (otherwise ordinary) people. I won't spoil the plot, but it's, well, epic. LOL There are some made-up words, but they aren't overdone IMO like in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.

Reamde (the typo is intentional) is a present-day thriller having to do with a ransomware virus aimed at exploiting gamers that winds up on a flash drive and blows up into an international incident. I can't really say much more about it without spoiling it, but it's intense. Think spy movie, but bigger.

These all sound worth a read! Thanks for the descriptions.

I agree about Seveneves actually,

NSFW: show

I agree about the last part, it felt really rushed both in describing everything that happened in a matter of fact way rather than letting it happen through the story because there was too much history to cram in, and also the finish felt like it came out of nowhere. The first two bits were fantastic hard sci fi though that I got really into.

[oscillateur]

I'm finishing Stand on Zanzibar by Brunner. Good book (considering it's almost 50 years old now) but it took me quite a while to get used to it (the narration is quite special and it's futurism from the sixties...).

Next on the Kindle (not sure in which order) :
- Authority by Jeff Vandermeer (I really like Vandermeer, Borne was great)
- H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
- Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz (recommendation from Warren Ellis' newsletter)
- Radiance, by Catherynne M. Valente (recommendation from Warren Ellis' newsletter)
- Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman

[MrNovember]

I'm finishing Stand on Zanzibar by Brunner. Good book (considering it's almost 50 years old now) but it took me quite a while to get used to it (the narration is quite special and it's futurism from the sixties...).

Next on the Kindle (not sure in which order) :
- Authority by Jeff Vandermeer (I really like Vandermeer, Borne was great)
- H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
- Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz (recommendation from Warren Ellis' newsletter)
- Radiance, by Catherynne M. Valente (recommendation from Warren Ellis' newsletter)
- Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman

Have you read Annihilation by Vandermeer? It's the first in the Southern Reach trilogy; Authority is the second in the series. I really enjoyed that series! The trilogy is actually being made into a movie and looks really good. Same director as Ex Machina, so I am excited.

I'm hoping to get Borne and Norse Mythology for Christmas, they'll be right at the top of my next up list after I finish the City and the City.

[oscillateur]

Yeah, I read Annihilation one or two years ago.

[weebles]

I’ve got H is for Hawk on my kindle and it’s sat there so long I forgot the premise.