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).
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine.
I really loved the first book in the series, A Memory Called Empire, but I find the second one harder to get through. The writing really gets into the protagonist’s head, and with all the stress she’s in, it gets… claustrophobic, I guess, for me. I wish there was a bit more focus on the plot about the cool mysterious aliens.
Wool was great. And the show was good too. You can basically watch the first season after finishing Wool, if you’d like.
I’m reading He Who Fights With Monsters but I’m going to dig through this thread and find a good scifi novel to read next!
I just started HWFWM and it’s my first LitRPG. Very different from what I’m used to reading but I really like so far. Going to try and finish it before I start Brandon Sanderson secret novel #3
It was my first LitRPG too. I wasn’t sure I’d like it but I do. I’m on the 3rd book, actually.
I haven’t read anything by Sanderson yet but I follow him on social media and I really like him.
I’m currently nostalgia-reading Robert Rankin’s Dance Of The Voodoo Handbag but that’s more far fetched fiction than sci-fi. Silly, entertaining and lots of tall tales. I’m also reading The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken. I was hoping for it to be the start of a good series of books to read over the summer but it’s not very good. I will probably not bother with the rest of the series.
I am reading currently Snow Crash. A great example how pioneers of a genre seem to lose their originality over time, but the book hasn’t changed, everyone else has just copied it to death.
Previously I read some if the Culture series and got surprised by the genuine atrocities popping up in them. The books were interesting and the horrible things had a reason to be there, but I just became overwhelmed.
Just started reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
Working my way through some Hugo winners past— reading A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M Miller.
I really liked Canticle, but I really felt like it suffered from being a fix-up novel. It’s three acts are not equal and don’t totally fit together in my opinion. It really starts off strong though! Hope you like it!
I’m rereading Asimov’s complete saga in “internal story chronological order”:
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I, Robot / The Complete Robot (except ‘Mirror Image’!) [ROBOTS]
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The Caves of Steel [ROBOTS]
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The Naked Sun [ROBOTS]
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Mirror Image (short story) [ROBOTS]
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The Robots of Dawn [ROBOTS]
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Robots and Empire [ROBOTS]
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The Stars, Like Dust-- [EMPIRE]
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The Currents of Space [EMPIRE]
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Pebble in the Sky [EMPIRE]
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Prelude to Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Forward the Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation and Empire [FOUNDATION]
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Second Foundation [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation’s Edge [FOUNDATION]
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Foundation and Earth [FOUNDATION]
I’m currently on “Forward the foundation”
The Foundation series is absolutely amazing, and I am jealous of you if this is your first reading. One of my formative series growing up. You’re inspiring me to do the whole Asimov read through like your doing, because I don’t believe I ever read the Empire books and never read Robot beyond I, Robot.
I’m surprised The Caves of Steel is so early as it seemed really futuristic compared to most of The Complete Robot, but I read it a long time ago so maybe I’m not remembering correctly.
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I’m halfway through Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. I didn’t know anything about this book other than it was about a generation ship but I’m really enjoying it. Every time I pick up one of his books I can’t believe how good the science is, dude really digs into everything
I loved this one! Such an interesting story. I love how he really nails humanity in it as well.
I’m working my way through both the Murderbot Diaries (just started Network Effect) and the Rivers of London series (just finished Broken Homes, though this series is more urban fantasy). Both and very enjoyable!
My wife and I just ran through the whole murderbot series. They are such a fun read. I’m convinced that the author plays/has played a ton of Shadowrun.
The murderbot stories get so much praise but I was never able to get into them. I binge read (well, actually binge listened) to the Rivers of London books a few months ago and thought they were first-rate.
I just finished the new Ann Leckie book, Translation State, which I liked very much. If you couldn’t get enough of the the Imperial Radch universe it’s a must read.
Currently reading Foundation and Earth by Asimov, I absolutely loved the original trilogy so I’ve been reading through the sequels and plan on going back to the prequels after. In my opinion the sequels have a big shift in pacing and sort of the way that the plot develops… not sure how I feel about that. On one hand it is easier to keep up with with less characters, but on the other it feels like the scale of things is much smaller. Trying to not spoil anything. The series is a fantastic read nevertheless!
I’ve only read the original Foundation trilogy, would you recommend the others?
Difficult to say. If you keep in mind, that he wrote the sequels 30 years or so later and acknowledge that one’s views change over such a period, then go ahead. If you, however, expect the same flavor as the trilogy, then I wouldn’t recommend reading foundation’s edge and foundation and earth. And although these are meant as an introduction to the men behind time, that one makes no reference to the foundation trilogy. So it’s fine to just read the end of eternity on its own.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Was a recommendation on the R site.
Complex, eon spanning, hard sci-fi. I’m loving it!
If you could, what other sci-fi works would you compare it to? I am wrapping up the Children of Time series and could use something else.
I sold Seveneves to a friend by saying it is like Neal Stephenson wrote The Martian. Well, at least the first 2/3 of it. It talks a lot about the science how how an event like the one described in the book might happen but with the kind if granularity and verbosity you would expect from NS.
Not science fiction, but I’m loving Carl Sagans “The Demon-Haunted World”. He really was a brilliant dude.
House of Leaves. Although I’m struggling because I haven’t read a physical book in years and I can’t bring it everywhere like I can my Leaf 2.
I love that book.
The reading of the book becomes part of the experience of the book in a way that feels unique and engaging. If you like the format being part of the story I have to recommend S by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams and to a lesser extent the Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd.
I’m reading The Best Of World SF Vol 2 compilation, edited by Lavie Tidhar. There are some phenomenal short stories in this and the first one, and I really enjoy hearing voices from outside the English-speaking bubble that I usually read
Surface Detail, and The State of the Art by Iain M Banks. Been on a Culture bend recently. Excession is next on my list
