Author Topic: Science Fiction / Fantasy (Read 385230 times)

Steph · « **Reply #2480 on:** July 19, 2015, 09:12:23 AM »

Science Fiction / Fantasy

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Welcome to the whole universe! This is where we gather to share our experiences in science fiction and fantasy. We like everything, from Gregory Benford to Stephanie Meyer—hard science to magic and fantasy.

Come in, sit down with us, and tell us what you are reading or have read, what you like or dislike.

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Discussion Leader: PatH

Found an old Patricia Wrede in a used book store. Tales of the Enchanted Forest.. Old and tame, but fun.. This princess went out and found her own dragon..

Steph · « **Reply #2481 on:** July 20, 2015, 08:43:41 AM »

and yesterday while looking in Amazon Kindle sstuff, discovered they have just decided to put each of the four tales on the Kindle starting mid September.. They are fun reads.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2482 on:** July 20, 2015, 12:26:05 PM »

Bless my Kindle fill in spelling feature. "...is the USA attached to an asteroid." USA should read ISS. And how the heck did it get bliss out of bold? " bliss,italic, etc." Sorry I didn't catch them before posting.

I have put Seveneves on hold vis the Free Library of Philadelphia just in case I don't get it finished in two weeks. There are seven holds for two books on my local library Overdrive, and five on hold for two print books. The Phila library looks like it has a slight hedge as it has six books with 10 holds.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2483 on:** July 21, 2015, 04:06:33 PM »

I've finished Michael R. Hicks first book of the In Her Name: The Last War Trilogy, First Contact. Wow! It turned out to be an exciting read. It is one of the extremely few books in which the ending brought tears. Not only that, but I found myself rooting for various characters, both alien and human, at various points in the book. The only thing that really bugged me about the story was, why on earth (or off in this case) would the idiots in charge assign the only survivor of the first contact, and as such the only expert, to anywhere other than the Admiral' s flagship and staff? However, where he was placed became critical to part of space battle later on.

If I can't borrow the rest of the series, I will be forced to spend money on the rest. It turned out to be that good.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2484 on:** July 22, 2015, 06:46:55 AM »

Super! I just checked my Phila. Free Library hold on Seveneves. Interested (annoyed?) that today it tells me that I am #60 of 63 holds. My kindle app. had said there were only 10 holds on it yesterday, which would have made me #11. Oh well, I put in a hold on my library Overdrive link, which now shows that seven holds are on each of the copies available through them. If I don't get this tome I have now read by the end of my two weeks, I will also put a hold in on the printed copy. I'll just have to see which comes up the earliest.

PatH, you might like the In Her Name: The Last War Trilogy. It is character rich, some fleshed out more than others, and the alien descriptions are rather detailed. The 1st of the series managed to get me emotionally involved and care about the characters, both human and alien. It demanded my full attention, as does Seveneves, which is why I stopped reading the latter until I finished the first.

PatH · « **Reply #2485 on:** July 22, 2015, 10:17:16 AM »

That trilogy sounds good. My library doesn't have it--I'll have to pick it up somewhere else.

Steph · « **Reply #2486 on:** July 23, 2015, 08:38:09 AM »

Rooting around in the TBR pile. came up with a small series that I had read one of and had found out that there were previous ones.So I am deep in Midnight Riot by Ben AAronoviitch.. England,, with regular people and bang.. a magical department at Scotland Yard.. What fun

PatH · « **Reply #2487 on:** July 23, 2015, 09:18:17 AM »

Sounds like fun.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2488 on:** July 24, 2015, 06:34:23 AM »

While doing my morning cruise through Project Gutenberg, I ran across an issue of The Fantasy Fan Magazine (1934) which had part seven on H.P. Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature. I am not a big fan of reading horror stories, but there are a few I like/read. His "long essay" on the genre looks interesting.

I can find online versions, but the only downloadable version of the complete work I found, so far, is from the University of Adelaide in Australia. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lovecraft/hp/supernatural/ Here is an online version. http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/essays/supernat/supern00.htm

Steph · « **Reply #2489 on:** July 24, 2015, 10:33:03 AM »

I loved the first book in the series and will read the second one soon. The third one is the one I read first.. The first one ends with a huge surprise, a chase that is wild and will leave you cheering on the hero.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2490 on:** July 27, 2015, 05:55:35 AM »

Found this interview with Any Weir done before the movie was made, when he was just getting feelers from the movie people. http://www.sciencefriday.com/playlist/#play/segment/9345

Steph · « **Reply #2491 on:** July 27, 2015, 08:46:45 AM »

Still reading my fantasy with princesses, dragons, magicians and now a King of the Enchanted Forest.. Makes a lovely bed time book.

PatH · « **Reply #2492 on:** July 28, 2015, 03:58:47 PM »

Is that still the Scotland Yard with magic? Sounds entertaining.

PatH · « **Reply #2493 on:** July 28, 2015, 04:22:53 PM »

Thanks for the interview with Andy Weir, Frybabe. It's interesting how much his online readers critiqued his science.

I'm not much of a horror fan either, but H. P. Lovecraft is supposed to be pretty seminal, so I was glad to read his At the Mountains of Madness for my f2f club a few years ago. I enjoyed the narrative, but the horror didn't work for me--I wasn't horrified. But it's also an Antarctic exploration tale, though the science is a bit fanciful.

I forget if either of you reads Charles Stross' Laundry Files series, about a computational demonologist/government employee, but familiarity with Lovecraft is useful for it. I should really read The Call of the Cthulhu, which seems to be the most important work.

Is the essay good? It's in my copy of Mountains, but I haven't read it.

Steph · « **Reply #2494 on:** July 30, 2015, 09:04:48 AM »

I have been playing with a variety of fantasy.. The bedtime is Patricia Wrede The Enchanted Forest Chronicles and holds four of the books of hers about the Enchanted Forest. Witches, princesses,dragons,, magical talking cats ( but only to the right people) and the wizards as the bad guys.
Ben Aaronovich is the Scotland Yard magician type.. Murders and mystery..
Both the authors are good, but quite different.

PatH · « **Reply #2495 on:** August 09, 2015, 11:55:45 AM »

I finally got time to read Barrayar, the second book in Cordelia's Honor.. It's very satisfying. And now I see why the Barrayarans are so afraid of Miles's mother.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2496 on:** August 09, 2015, 02:36:50 PM »

I finally finished SevenEves by Neal Stephenson. It was interesting, but very long and detailed Hard SciFi. Now I am most of the way through Hugh Howey's Half Way Home. It is most definitely written with for Teen/YA. It's not as interesting to me as his Wool(Silo) series, Sand, and The Shell Collector. I think it was one of his first published books.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2497 on:** August 16, 2015, 06:52:51 PM »

I am reading The Heretic by Lucas Bale. The main character reminds me a lot of Mal from Firefly. It also comes complete with frontier town, oppressive space empire, and a preacher. It appears to be a first of series book.

Well! I Guess I sHould have waited a wee bit. I just finished it. The author did, in fact, acknowledge Firefly as an inspiration. I forgot to mention the Mal like character is named Sheperd, and was a tribute to Jess Wedon and his creation.

PatH · « **Reply #2498 on:** August 16, 2015, 10:45:16 PM »

I should probably try The Heretic. Anything based on Firefly is a good bet.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2499 on:** August 17, 2015, 05:57:26 AM »

My apologies to Joss Whedon. I spelled his names wrong. Yes, I think you will like it Pat. I read a blurb about the second in the series. It does not carry over the characters from the first, BUT, the third seems to bring the characters from book one and book two together. I get the impression that there will be a book four.

I found this comment in Wikipedia about how Fox felt about the show.

Quote

One of the struggles that Whedon had with Fox was the tone of the show, especially with the main character Malcolm Reynolds. Fox pressured Whedon to make Mal more "jolly", as they feared he was too dark in the original pilot, epitomized by the moment he suggests he might "space" Simon and River, throwing them out of the airlock to die. In addition, Fox was not happy that the show involved the "nobodies" who "get squished by policy" instead of the actual policy makers.

I can see lightening the character up a bit; it certainly made Mal more appealing. I don't quite understand why they thought they should have included the "actual policy makers". It could have worked, but it also could have bogged the program down. The producers opted for the KISS principle by not involving a lot of extraneous people and political issues/conniving. It worked for me.

PatH · « **Reply #2500 on:** August 17, 2015, 12:35:52 PM »

I can see why a bunch of policy makers might think that following policy makers would be the most interesting thing in the world, but they're idiots. Why tamper with something that good? And especially, why yank it off the air in the middle despite the anguished protests of fans? Bunch of idiots.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2501 on:** August 17, 2015, 03:01:53 PM »

I wholeheartedly agree.

Still waiting on the Leviathan. I am trying to find things to read, like short stories, to fill in the time. I am next in line. Right now I am reading some of the Lightspeed stories from the last freebie issue (August 2012) I downloaded from Amazon a few weeks back. Here is what is going on now. http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/

Frybabe · « **Reply #2502 on:** August 18, 2015, 05:02:49 PM »

I am reading a freebie I got from Amazon called Agent of Change. Written by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, it is set in the Liaden Universe. It is so good, that I have been reading it straight through all day.

http://sharonleewriter.com/correct-reading-order/ Fledgling is also a freebie, so I guess I will download that shortly.

PatH · « **Reply #2503 on:** August 18, 2015, 06:13:42 PM »

Frybabe, you're in big trouble now. Those books are addictive. Agent of Change, Carpe Diem, Plan B and I Dare form a fairly tight-knit story, mostly about Val Con and Miri, and should be read in that order. Fledgeling is the start of a story about someone else, kind of a side issue with connections to the other story. Conflict of Honors is about some other members of Val Con's family, and would make some of the characters you'll meet in the four books more intelligible.

It takes a while to get all the Liaden social system and characters straight, but it's worth it.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2504 on:** August 19, 2015, 06:31:26 AM »

I think I've fallen in love with the characters. It is unfortunate that I cannot find any of the series in my library system, nor have I found any of them on Overdrive or the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2505 on:** August 20, 2015, 08:50:20 AM »

Uh oh, I must have been asleep when I read some of Jack Campbell's Steadfast. I remember the "dancers" on their Earth tour and the kidnapping; I don't remember the robot controlled ships. Waaaah! I don't have a copy to refer back to since that was a borrowed book.

Wouldn't you know that just when the Donna Leon book is ready, so is Leviathan.

PatH · « **Reply #2506 on:** August 20, 2015, 10:32:26 AM »

Quote from: Frybabe on August 20, 2015, 08:50:20 AM

Wouldn't you know that just when the Donna Leon book is ready, so is Leviathan.

Of course. And every time I go to the west coast, one of my library holds is ready. I'm in Portland now, and John Scalzi's The End of All Things is sitting in the Bethesda library waiting for me. Luckily, this time I have two days left after I get back to pick it up.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2507 on:** August 22, 2015, 07:56:42 PM »

I'm going to have to look that up, Pat. I don't recall running across that one.

I finished Leviathan yesterday. What an interesting turn of events and ending. It leaves me really wondering what will come next, except that they will likely go home for another round of I interrogations from the politicians. I thought for a little while they might have another encounter with the Kicks. The mystery of the Enigmas isn't resolved yet either.

Did you notice that he got a comment or two in about the treatment of vets? Then there is the current debate over the safety of completely AI controlled weapons. What strikes my as interesting is the Steven Hawking is warning against allowing completely AI controlled systems. The SciFi writers have been having a field day with such systems gone haywire.

PatH · « **Reply #2508 on:** August 22, 2015, 08:42:59 PM »

Quote

Did you notice that he got a comment or two in about the treatment of vets?

Now that you mention it, I remember he did. Campbell has all along inserted bits about issues he cares about from his service time, ranging from discipline to funding to incompetent orders and micromanaging from desk officers. And this issue is a biggie. We're currently producing a huge number of men and women who have come out of their service looking OK at first glance, but damaged in ways that affect their ability to function in a normal life, and they aren't getting the care they deserve and need.

I too wonder what comes next. If Geary goes into politics, that isn't Campbell's strength.

Your amusing link in the Library fits neatly into the question of the value of AIs.

PatH · « **Reply #2509 on:** August 22, 2015, 08:57:11 PM »

The End of All Things: I forget how much any of you have read of John Scalzi's Old Man's War series. After the first four books, involving John Perry and Jane Sagan, Scalzi wrote The Human Division, a series of loosely connected short stories that make up a tale of Lieutenant Harry Wilson, former physics teacher, junior member of a second-rate diplomatic team, in which it gradually becomes apparent that some unknown group is trying to set all the races of the universe at war with each other. In this book, to quote fantasticfiction,

Quote

Lieutenant Wilson and Colonial Union diplomats must race to keep the peace, seek reconciliation with an enraged Earth, and maintain humanity's unity at all costs. If they don't, it will mean oblivion, extinction and the end of all things.

Let's hope they do.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2510 on:** August 23, 2015, 06:18:16 AM »

Yes, I looked it up. I stopped without reading the Human Division (unless I read the first, I forget) series. The End of All Things is the latest. I wonder if the cover art was done by the same artist as the one that was doing Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series. It sure looks similar. It looks like the Free Library of Phila. has one ebook of this one, but none of the other in the series.

I read the first three Old Man's War series, but am not sure if I even read Zoe's Tale. Oddly, I can't find any my copies. I wonder if I lent them out years ago and forgot about it. I surely would not have pitched them. An annoying mystery.

Steph · « **Reply #2511 on:** August 23, 2015, 09:09:27 AM »

Wish I liked space wars, but simply dont.. I do love alternate universes though.

PatH · « **Reply #2512 on:** August 23, 2015, 11:51:59 AM »

Steph, you and I both like space wars when it's Miles Vorkosigen pulling his crazy antics. I just finished Cetaganda, which isn't as hilarious as some, but a good yarn anyway. Since you gave me some tantalizing clues about Miles' eventual love interest, I scrutinize likely, or unlikely, female characters suspiciously, but not this time. (No, don't tell me more.)

I'm trying to red the books pretty much in order, not easy to do when the early ones are hard to get.

Steph · « **Reply #2513 on:** August 25, 2015, 08:09:53 AM »

I guess I simply love Miles and dont think of all the space war stuff. He is such an interesting character and he and his cousin grow closer in the series. Yes, the oldeer ones are stinkers to find.

PatH · « **Reply #2514 on:** August 25, 2015, 09:44:14 AM »

Besides, the battles aren't the most important part of the books. Considering that new books in the series sell well when they come out, you'd think they would want to keep the first ones in print to get new fans. So far I've been getting whatever used ones Powell's has on hand whenever I'm in Portland.

Steph · « **Reply #2515 on:** August 26, 2015, 08:46:11 AM »

Science fiction and fantasy are the hardest books to find used.. Readers of the genre tend to hang onto their copies...

PatH · « **Reply #2516 on:** August 26, 2015, 10:04:22 AM »

I certainly do; I've got bookcases and stacks of them.

Steph · « **Reply #2517 on:** August 27, 2015, 09:33:06 AM »

I do too,,mostly all read, but a few that I squirrel away to cheer me up on way down low days.. mostly Pratchett. He relliably makes me laugh.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2518 on:** August 30, 2015, 02:54:16 PM »

I am reading a book called Halo by Tom Maddox and enjoying it more than I thought I would. It is set in a world where there is human/AI interfacing by way of a plug-in socket in the back of your head and/or a neural implant to connect with the AI and VR world. Early cyberpunk. Tom Maddox is a friend of William Gibson's. He doesn't appear to have written very much. In fact, this appears to be his only novel, and it was written way back in 1991.

Steph · « **Reply #2519 on:** September 01, 2015, 08:08:36 AM »

not a cyberpunk fan. and dislike Gibson..

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Author Topic: Science Fiction / Fantasy (Read 385230 times)