this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023

13 points (100.0% liked)

Science Fiction

13328 readers

366 users here now

Welcome to /c/ScienceFiction

December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

We are a community for discussing all things Science Fiction. We want this to be a place for members to discuss and share everything they love about Science Fiction, whether that be books, movies, TV shows and more. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow.

Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
Put (Spoilers) in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers.
Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread.

Lemmy World Rules

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Tenthrow@lemmy.world

What books are you reading at the moment? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by FantasticFox@lemmy.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world

75 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm currently reading the Wool omnibus by Hugh Howey. It's pretty decent I've been making very rapid progress as it's been too hot to sleep here recently now the summer has arrived.

I haven't seen the Apple show, but maybe I'll watch it in the future when I've finished all the books (I had Shift and Dust as well).

(page 2) 25 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] house_of_questions@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I am rereading Malazan Book of the Fallen. Just started the fourth book, House of Chains.

The start of this book is the hardest for me to get through. The first couple of chapters are really boring to me and it's only after

spoiler

Karsa is captured and Torvald Nom is introduced

that I start getting into the story. The rest of the book is phenomenal, of course.

Edit: damn, is there no other spoiler option that just greys out the words? Edit2: Geez, I only just now realize this is not c/books but c/sciencefiction. Sorry if this post doesn't belong here then, haha.

[–] yoursingingtelegram@lemmy.one 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm curious what you think about the series so far. I love fantasy, and after everyone told me Malazan was the PhD test for fantasy readers I read the whole thing and was... Underwhelmed. I can't find anyone else who just wasn't impressed with it, people either hate it and never finished or treat it like it's the greatest work of fiction a fantasy author has ever produced. I have so many thoughts on it, but always get yelled down by either camp.

[–] asimpledungeonmaster@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are not alone. I've had the same experience and I'm wondering what the big deal is. The books are really good, obviously, and a master class in world-building, but I find a lot of the deus ex plot elements disappointing.

I'm only on Memories of Ice, though, so what do I know?

[–] house_of_questions@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Which deus ex plot elements are you talking about, specifically? I know some of the events in the books can be confusing, but most of it falls into place eventually.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] Tenthrow@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Wild book. 3rd in the series. Not finished yet but the first two were incredible.

[–] rizo@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Just ended with 'Children of Time' by Adrian Tchaikovsky and will now start 'Children of Ruin' (the second in the series). I liked it a lot,... the gist of it:

Humans terraform planets
Humans want 'crispr' intelligent apes
Humans kill each other
Crispr can't find apes,.. uses spiders instead
Other Humans come eons later and find intelligent spiders

The story is told through the eyes of the spiders and the surviving humans and how they try to communicate, think in different terms, fight for the last habitable planet,....

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] skeswo320@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm currently reading Chibola Burn, the forth book in The Expanse series. Really enjoying it, specially since the third one was my least favorite of the first three. So it feels good to be loving a book in the series again.

I would recommend the series to fans of somewhat believable sci-fi.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] grady77@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m currently hooked on the Dresden Files, by no means perfect literary master pieces but damn if I’m not completely hooked. I’m averaging one-two books of the series a week right now lol

Also just finished Revival by Stephen King as an audio book. I’m a big Stephen King fan, but I have to say I did not find this book to be that scary and the build up was looooong even by his standards.

[–] CuriousLibrarian@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use the Dresden files books as a palate cleanser between more difficult reads. So much fun. I listen to the audiobooks read by James Marsters.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] moosh@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Working on The Name of the Wind and then next up is Death’s End.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm so so sorry. Name of the Wind is brilliant. The sequel is decent. But I've given up hope for the series to ever be completed.

[–] moosh@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whatcha sorry about? Does the book end on a cliffhanger or something? Or can I get away with just reading the first one?

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, I adored Name of the Wind. It's a great read. But like I said, I've given up hope for that series. I don't believe that the author will ever finish it. I really hate unfinished stories, especially one like this that feels only half-written (yes, half, with 2 out of 3 books written!). So I'm sorry for your sake, that you've gotten sucked into an unfinished tale.

[–] moosh@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Ah, that’s a bummer. I’m definitely enjoying it this far but I’m invested in enough other series/stories that I’ll probably feel ok putting this one on the shelf. Similar to GoT, I enjoyed what I read (all that’s been released in the main series) and have since moved on. If another book does come out, awesome! If not, oh well.

[–] CylonBunny@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. I’m about 3/4 of the way through, and it’s been very interesting thus far! Definitely has not gone where I thought it was gonna go, which is cool.

If you haven’t read it I won’t give any spoilers, but I was fascinated by the similarities to The Expanse in the beginning. They definitely go different places, but I can feel Reynolds influence on James Corey. Surprised I haven’t seen anybody mention this before.

Anyways, I read House of Suns before this and probably like that more, but Pushing Ice is quite good. Should I start the Revelation Space series next?

[–] caephi@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

very minor spoilers for anyone who hasn't read

i read pushing ice with my book club recently. was also not expecting things to go where they went but i really enjoyed the direction. it makes for a very fleshed out 'sailors marooned on a deserted island' kind of story that doesn't waste the possibilities it's genre and setting allow it. janus as a setting just has a lot of great mysteries and the way the crew interact and survive on the planet is explored very thoroughly. the isolation of how hopelessly far they are from home and only getting further struck me when i was reading. you can understand the different factions and how things might have been different if only a few things changed in the beginning.

and as far as sci-fi goes, it's version of it is a favorite of mine. the blue-collar worker in space is something i've always liked, and it gets depicted very well in this book. would love to hear what you think once you've finished it.

[–] CylonBunny@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just finished! Not as strong as House of Suns, but I quite liked it. There are some super solid sci-fi concepts, but some of the characters are just so unlikable.

Spoilers below

I really struggled with Svetlana specifically and how long she held her grudge! That exile! So many years! Intense. I was hoping for a bit more of a twist with the Fountain Heads, but then again them being essentially good and telling the truth is a bit of a twist because you sort of expect the alien betrayal! It feels like he set up the story for a sequel with that teaser about the middle of the structure and all. Hope Reynolds revisits this world soon.

[–] caephi@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

svetlana was a character that i had mixed feelings about. i think the book did a good job of establishing the mounting dread of the situation rockhopper was in leading to their landing on janus, so i felt like i could empathize with her and her team's sentiments to a point. but as it goes on and on and she remains the most petty person, especially with so much at stake, it was really over zealous. especially when she had parry as a voice of reason just to ignore. it doesn't help that in every given opportunity bella is always more fair and measured in every action. no competition at all for who's taking the gold in holding a grudge. i have to say though i couldn't help but laugh when there was so much effort gathering and informing everyone to absolutely, under no circumstances, even utter as little as a single word to the musk dogs, followed by direct video feed of svetlana going to go make contact with the musk dogs, comedy.

as for the fountain heads i really enjoyed their earnestness. their complete lack of nefarious intentions was a fun play on expectations, like you said, and mckinley is just one of my favorite dudes.

i think the concept of the structure and the idea of this timeless, universal zoo was really cool and interesting, much more than i was anticipating from the concept at first. the way the time gets played with is something i really loved in the story. connecting bella's final broadcast as the benefactor sparking the greatest civilization in human history, ultimately tying back to garrison, the lock of hair, and the cube as, in a way, his final parting gift, thrown through all of time and space for her, really hit me when it all got brought together towards the end. it really added an important piece of humanity and sentimentality to the unimaginably vast journey bella and the crew goes on.

i'm glad you enjoyed it. i actually haven't read any other reynolds but i did look a bit into house of suns when i was going through his catalogue before ultimately choosing to read pushing ice, i guess i'll have to give it a read.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago

I'm re-reading Broken Angels (the sequel to Altered Carbon) by Richard Morgan. Of the three books in the trilogy, this is the one I liked the most.

I've got River Of Pain by Christopher Golden on pause. It's an Aliens-prequel about the colony set up on the planet where the Nostromo crew picked up the alien. I haven't read it before, but I'm pretty sure I know how it ends.

load more comments