EPTWhat Are You Reading 2015 - Page 39
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21244 Posts
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phantomfive
Korea (South)404 Posts
On August 08 2015 01:58 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: It's a thin line between the two anyways. I personally mix SciFi and Fantasy on my bookshelves -shrug- What a book is labelled as shouldn't influence anything anyways. Most science fiction nowadays is fantasy based on scientific speculation from the 50s. In those days, it seemed like faster-than-light travel was just around the corner. Now instead of basing stories on plausible scientific technologies, they are based on technologies the author wished could exist. Much like fantasy is based on magic or creatures the author dreams existed. | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18240 Posts
On August 13 2015 03:00 phantomfive wrote: Most science fiction nowadays is fantasy based on scientific speculation from the 50s. In those days, it seemed like faster-than-light travel was just around the corner. Now instead of basing stories on plausible scientific technologies, they are based on technologies the author wished could exist. Much like fantasy is based on magic or creatures the author dreams existed. Depends on what authors you look at. Iain Banks, probably the most famous modern SciFi writer kept his work within the realms of plausability (although he was nebulous on quite a lot of the sci, at least he didn't posit things like FTL drives as "magic"). However, plenty of authors go further than that. Stephen Baxter writes hard SciFi (when he's not writing historic fiction), as do Ben Bova and Neal Stephenson. They work within the bounds of modern physics and extrapolate on what might be true within those bounds, just as Arthur C. Clark, Larry Niven and Isaac Asimov did the generation before. There are plenty of other authors that respect the bounds of modern science. And then there are authors that go completely off the deep end. Leading the host of pulp scifi writers is Kevin J. Anderson. Peter F. Hamilton is similarly awful. | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18240 Posts
On July 23 2015 05:33 Manit0u wrote: My distate for JRRT started long before any meme hit the Internet (before I had Internet at home) and no one would waste precious bandwidth on a meme with their 14.4kbps modem. Anyway, I've never said it's bad. It just isn't as good as some other things out there. I'm really having a hard time trying to find one fantasy book that would really blow me away - there's plenty of jawdropping sci-fi but fantasy? Not so much. Just recently I've asked myself a question of what is the best fantasy book and I'm not really sure. Perhaps the Earthsea saga by Le Guin? I remember that Edding's Tamuli trilogy also left a deep impression on me, but it was long time ago and I didn't get a chance to re-read it since so I can't be sure. JRRT is just incredibly boring with his lengthy passages of world description that are interesting the first time through but don't really help the plot that much. The characters are rather bland and one-dimensional, the suspense just isn't there since it's pretty obvious who the bad guys are etc. etc. It's a fine piece of literature but I wouldn't jump on the "JRRT is the shit" bandwagon now. I've simply read better things and his works have steadily went down the awesome ladder over the years. Haha, the topic got me interested and paging back through the pages of discussion to this post. Although Pandemona already deconstructed it in the greatest post in this thread, I just wanted to add that complaining about bad characterization in Tolkien and then saying Eddings wrote one of your favourite fantasy novels is a bit topsy turvy. To be fair, I have not read the Tamuli trilogy, but the Belgariad is basically a LotR rehash with cardboard cutout characters and a simplified plot. It put me off ever reading anything by him again. In his defense, it's target audience is tweens, so my reading it in my mid twenties might not have been my greatest idea. However, I find it hard to believe that he progressed sufficiently to write something worth reading. | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18240 Posts
On July 29 2015 02:43 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: The sequels (Frank's, not Brian/Others') are crucial to understanding Dune. Dune was never meant to be a standalone. You're doing both yourself and Herbert a great disservice by not reading, at the very least, Messiah/Children/God Emperor. On the contrary. While Dune had its excellent worldbuilding and a somewhat interesting plot to lift you through the drag of Frank Herbert's awful writing, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about Messiah. I cannot say anything about the other 2, because Messiah put me off reading another Dune novel for the rest of my life. | ||
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ticklishmusic
United States15977 Posts
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Xxio
Canada5565 Posts
The Best of Connie Willis: Connie has won the most Hugos for good reason. World-class 1st person writing. Slice-of-life stories, small in scale. Strong human element. Ysabel: One of the cleanest fantasy stories I've read. The YA characters are great, done right. Bonus enjoyment if the reader has an interest in, fantasizes about, history. | ||
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phantomfive
Korea (South)404 Posts
On August 13 2015 07:19 Acrofales wrote: There are plenty of other authors that respect the bounds of modern science. And then there are authors that go completely off the deep end. Leading the host of pulp scifi writers is Kevin J. Anderson. Peter F. Hamilton is similarly awful. Don't get me wrong.....even if an author doesn't respect science, the book can still be great. I love The Martian Chronicals, but I would categorize it as fantasy rather than science fiction. | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
On August 12 2015 01:24 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: Second one is the best of the three imo, hope you enjoy. I need more people to talk about the series with. Just finished it and I'm pretty amazed. I really liked how he pulled all the different ideas together at the end and his imagination is really great (although more fantasy than sci-fi towards the end but I didn't mind). The biggest weakness of the first book for me was the lack of interesting characters, but he really managed to write a great personal story around the Luo Ji character. | ||
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Sickel1
26 Posts
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21244 Posts
On August 17 2015 04:30 Sickel1 wrote: I just started reading The Quants by Scott Patterson- I'm really interested in math. Is there any Sci-Fi that you guys know of that uses a lot of mathematics/engineering in the plot? If so, please recommend, I'd be very interested! Try Cryotonomicon by Stepehenson. | ||
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21244 Posts
On August 17 2015 02:54 Nyxisto wrote: Just finished it and I'm pretty amazed. I really liked how he pulled all the different ideas together at the end and his imagination is really great (although more fantasy than sci-fi towards the end but I didn't mind). The biggest weakness of the first book for me was the lack of interesting characters, but he really managed to write a great personal story around the Luo Ji character. Yea his imagination is great and it's really interesting to see novel applications of real world theories. It definitely got a bit out there (spoilers: third one more so lol) but the force of his ideas still managed to carry the book well. There are definitely weird parts like + Show Spoiler + the one where he talks about Foundation with Bin Laden lol | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
On August 17 2015 05:12 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: Yea his imagination is great and it's really interesting to see novel applications of real world theories. It definitely got a bit out there (spoilers: third one more so lol) but the force of his ideas still managed to carry the book well. There are definitely weird parts like + Show Spoiler + the one where he talks about Foundation with Bin Laden lol + Show Spoiler + Haha yes the bin laden scene was weird, but the whole wallfacer/wallbreaker thing was another great concept. I'm just glad that the book ended on a hopeful note, I was prepared for the worst : ( I also felt that the book was a step up writing wise. The first felt a little descriptive but this one had some really nice passages (especially towards the ending) and felt more pleasant to read overall. | ||
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Fighter
Korea (South)1531 Posts
![[image loading]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f9/Seveneves_Book_Cover.jpg) SevenEves Just finished SevenEves. It was good, definitely better than the Baroque Cycle and to a lesser degree Cryptonomicon, but I still prefer Anathem, Diamond Age and Snow Crash. I don't know, maybe it's just my personal taste, but I feel like Stephenson is at his best when he's writing with more philosophical than scientific/historical themes. ![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ml%2BjD9l3L.jpg) The Power of Habit Interesting book, talks about the massive effects that habits have upon our lives. Mainly, it's interesting for how to identify a habit, break it down, and fix it. That said, the heart of the book probably could have been done in about 60 pages. The rest is mostly entertaining anecdotes and illustrations. ![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HY2ZzkaxL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) The Language Hoax A self-professed manifesto against Whorfianism (Sapir-Whorf). Pretty interesting for what it sets out to do, and fairly well condensed. Basically, the author thinks that Whorfianism goes too far (or at least, that the media seems to run too far with the ball on what are, academically, much more modest claims). Nothing too in depth, fairly accessible. Not a bad little piece. | ||
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phagga
Switzerland2194 Posts
![[image loading]](http://media.buch.de/img-adb/02992724-00-03/heart_of_darkness.jpg) I've seen the movie (Apocalypse now) and played the game (Spec Ops: The Line), and now I've finally read the book that started it all. It's hard for me to describe in english how much the book impressed me. The slow drift into insanity while they got deeper into the congo and the way how the author subtly shows the ridiculousness of the whole colonisation is very impressive. The vocabulary is expansive (if that's the right word), and he describes everything so vividly. I really, really loved to read this. ![[image loading]](http://media.buch.de/img-adb/03462870-00-03/neuromancer.jpg) The story is very good, the characters are interesting, but what impressed me is how William Gibson predicted the evolution of the internet and distributed computing. Despite the book being over 30 years old, the setting still seems realistic, like something that could actually happen at some point in the near future. The only real big flaw was that Gibson was not able to anticipate mobile technology. Also Gibson was allegedly the guy who invented and popularized the word "cyberspace" with this book. Right now I'm reading the second book of Stieg Larssons "Millennium" series, the english title is "the girl who played with fire". The first (and well known) book in the series is called "the girl with the dragon tattoo". ![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511DIJZWJ7L._SX314_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) Since the book is originally written in swedish, I'm reading it in my mother tongue (german). The story is very engaging, although the language is actually quite simple. It's just incredibly fun to read, and I'm looking forward to read the third book as well. | ||
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phagga
Switzerland2194 Posts
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farvacola
United States18856 Posts
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Acrofales
Spain18240 Posts
EDIT: also, Reamde wasn't actually bad. It was just nowhere near as good as the other books, imho. | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
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Redox
Germany24794 Posts
What kind of Fantasy is Wheel of Time? Is it more mature and with broader perspective? | ||
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