I dont read much, but I was going through some of the Revelation Space books and I think theyre pretty great.

Its hard for me to find a sci fi book with a plot that interests me. I want some super grand scale ancient mystery shit. Like stuff about alien gods and billions of years old civilisations visiting earth before it had life on it or something

Know anything like this?

the carpet makers and lord of all things from andreas eschbach. great writer, avoid any spoilers

I wonder if anything is lost in the translation from german to english. Seems to be the right type of author though. I prefer concepts to characters.

Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley (first part of a trilogy) really had me hooked from the first chapter and just got better and better, also Matter and The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks all have a substantial amount of super grand scale ancient mystery shit. Maybe you should read the 2001,2010,2061,3001 Arthur C Clarke books?

I nearly purchase seeds of earth every time I'm in my local bookshop but something holds me back. Something about it just makes me think the scale isnt grande enough.

I havent tried out stuff from Banks yet so maybe I'll give that a look.

Wait aren't you the guy that has been compulsively watching Friends episodes 15 hours a week for the last decade?

Pick up Seeds of Earth :p you might really enjoy it

Its about 5 hours a night. More on weekends. 15 hours a week would make me seem much more normal.

I'll trust your judgement anonymous man on the internet. The book is pretty cheap anyways

Super grand scale ancient mystery shit, eh? These series fit that bill:

Hyperion (series) by Dan Simmons
Dune (series) by Frank Herbert
Foundation (series) by Isaac Asimov

For just "epic" scale space operas, then Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained (two-part series) is pretty good (but it has some cliche moments). But I think the astronomy and epic scale is pretty awesome (lots of stuff about Dyson spheres, weapons that can destroy stars, etc.). Lots of strange aliens and such.

For "mystery" and/or strangeness (but not so epic), I'd recommend Gene Wolfe's An Evil Guest or Book of the New Sun (series), basically any Philip K. Dick book (except for his last 3 or 4 books which are quite depressing and schizophrenic), and Isaac Asimov's I, Robot.

i got given entire dune series for xmas. halfway through first one and really enjoying. do they stay good?

First two books (Dune and Dune Messiah) are my favs and have read them multiple times each. Book three is pretty good as well. But starting with book four, they start getting weirder and weirder. I still enjoyed the whole series a lot but you really need to be able to suspend disbelief to be able to enjoy the later books. I know a lot of people who tried to read the whole series and gave up in the fourth book cause it gets really fucken strange.

French novels from the 19th (Balzac, Zola, Hugo, Verne...).

You'd better have an excuse for leaving out Mssrs Dumas-pere and "Arouet" from that legendary list.

I was thinking Maupassant after that.

If Maupassant makes the list, I want to say "de Saint-Exupery should make it too", but the "19th century" label is stopping me, I'll look damn stupid :(

I recently finished his Matter book of the Culture series, I really loved how there are about a dozen paragraphs spread throughout the book which really just make you pause for a minute as everything you have ever known is abruptly put into perspective. The story itself is great too.

Coincidently right now I'm in the middle of reading his first novel (non-scifi) which is called the Wasp Factory, and it's very good so far.

I was pondering whether to continue on with Asimov's Foundation series (read just the first book), or to go with the next Culture thing. I think I'd go with Culture, but I can't seem to find Inversions' audiobook for some reason.

madbringer will hate me for this sentence, BUT Asimov's over-rated as a writer who would break through to your soul. Don't get me wrong, his contributions to literature are unparalleled, but his raison d'etre is non-fiction and the fact his published works are under every code of the Dewey (library) system just proves it: he was a brilliant academic with knowledge and ability that puts anyone else's to shame, but he couldn't describe inter-personal relationships for shit due to the fact he couldn't understand women and degenerates.

The first (women)were placed on a 1950s crystal pedestal of femininity, the second (degenerates- didn't exist in his views of a perfect world, there was no place for dickheads in his utopias.

I had a few free months in 2011 and I tried to tackle as much of his bibliohraphy (along with Arthur C Clarke, Ernest Hemmingway, Hunter S Thompsons, Kurt Vonnegut, George RR Martin and (for some reason) a bunch of shitty teen novels (not twilight) turned into a movie, where the protagonist is a special snowflake destined to save the world and has 2 romantic interests at the same time. I think down syndrome chick from American Hustle who showed her asshole on the internet starred in a few of those.

Were you replying to me? Anyway.


Now that I think of it, it was never the characters that made me interested in Asimov. But when you're captivated in the story, does it really matter? Perhaps it's part of the charm, the fact that you're interested in a totally unique way, because of the universes or mehcanics and ideas at play.

Either way, he's a great writer. If you're just critiquing part of his, that's fine, but you couldn't dismiss other parts of his legacy just by this. No one could.

But when you're captivated in the story, does it really matter?

I think it depends on what you think a novel should attempt to achieve. For some people, a good novel is primarily about life, for others a good novel introduces them to new ideas. That's why you have writers like Huxley who say they try to merge the essay and the novel while at the same time there are writers like Hemingway who take pride in saying "fuck literature."

Both you and mele, really.

And I never said that Asimov's not a great writer, just that his romatic interests/sexual tension between characters, and that because of his personal brilliance, he had trouble understanding the motivations of the antagonists/dregs of humanity/lowest common denominator past the "they're bad since there's evil out there". Considering the fact it's Sci-Fi, it's not even much of a criticism.

On topic, if you're still on a Sci-Fi trip, Arthur C Clarke is definitely worth checking out. I'd advise Tales from the White Hart (anthology book) and Rendezvous with Rama, both great. Also, the three sequels to 2001: A Space Odyssey are great and continue the spirit of the original greatly.

I've been reading some random non-fiction recently. Frankie Boyle - Scotland's Jesus (satiric musing about today's society), re-read Russell Brand's First Autobiography (My Booky Wook) so I could compare a recent episode from my life to one he had like a decade ago,

The best books I've read this year was:
The Martian by Andy Weir which is like Robinson Crusoe on Mars. After a failed mission his crew thought him dead and left on alone on Mars. Very thrilling, and funny, book about his struggle for survival.

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. This book is about Jun Do's life from child to adult in North Korea. His life as a soldier, kidnapping, spy and more. About his identity in the state of lies and propaganda. Incredible book.

The Martian was awesome. Hopefully they don't ruin the movie.

Currently reading Brothers Karamazow by Dostoevsky. After that I plan to read Doors of Perception by Huxley.

"120 Days of Sodom" By Marquis François de Sade. Previously I read "Venus in Furs" by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch.

I would recommend "The Expanse" series by James S. A. Corey, first book is "Leviathan Wakes".

It's set in the future where humans have colonised mars and the asteroid belt and the main plot is a detective searching for a missing girl simultaneously with a spaceship captain seeking the answers for the destruction of his ship...the two stories converge and it's a brilliant sci fi drama.

Give it a go, I'm buying the third book for christmas :D

Just in case you're not aware of them, there are a few book threads (I remember reading the threads started by madbringer, found some great reads in those) already on esr with lots of lovely suggestions:

http://www.esreality.com/post/2501704/book-thread-time-again/

http://www.esreality.com/post/1965688/recommend-me-a-book-2/

http://www.esreality.com/post/1602516/book-recommendations/

http://www.esreality.com/post/1786159/recommend-me-a-book-please/

Have fun :)

Sure I'm aware, I figured we needed a new one :)

REAMDE by Neal Stephenson (2011). Great cynical, snarky thriller.

was an ok book but went on too long. coincidentally the fictional mountain town in the book is based off where i live, including all the dope smuggling etc

Yeah it is too long but some of the tangents he goes off on are still very interesting.

fuck i read boobs thread

The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow. good book that i really didnt think i would like but was utterly hooked on it. also Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood was awesome. just finished her Maddadam trilogy too and was kinda letdown by the final installment.

Banks has nice style, probably my second favorite author after Greg Egan. Cheers :>

Never heard of Greg Egan before. Seems interesting. If I ever was up to branching out, tell me, what book of his did you like the most and why?

I can't name a single one, but perhaps three of all of his works: Permutational City, Quarantine and Diaspora.
The first one was the one I started reading Egan with, and it basically blew my mind out, that's it.
Quarantine is probably the best of his works in terms of coming on par with a single human protagonist, very emotional (for a hard science fiction, mind you) at times.
Diaspora can sometimes get you a bit lost, but if I had to describe this fine work with one word it would be 'pure'. And it takes your basic idea of bottle universe to an extreme.
Hope that was of any help :>

It was, I'm never sure if or when I'll be using these but I go through this stuff when pondering on what to read next, so thanks.

You're welcome.
It's good to see ESR has potential for such kind of threads, apart from regular QL update whine or Zhu's clone legion attention seeking.
Peter Hamilton is considered similar to Egan in a way, but I nearly fell asleep at the first part of his Uncommonwealth Saga :D

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson - imo better than Game of Thrones ;)

Neil Gaiman
China Miéville
Dan Simmons
Frank Herbert
Terry Pratchett
George Martin
etc...

Re-reading some Murakami novels to see if there's stuff I'd like to ask him about now that he's apparently doing a sort of AMA