Book Recommendations?

I am trying to finish a re-read of Eon. Read it in the late 80s, remember liking it. This time, not so much. The first half was great but once the Russians come on to the stage, it really starts to drag. And the cartoony Cold War Russian characterizations are kind of eye-rolling these days, IMO. The Way stuff was cool and fun until it was not - not sure why or how it got that way for me but it sure did.

I remember Darwin's Radio, Moving Mars, The Forge of God series, and Hull Zero Three fondly. However Eon probably means I should not go back and re-read those.

RIP. He was a writer of gigantic ideas that he expressed well as hard sci-fi stories.

Robear wrote:

May I recommend his Culture books? Particularly "The Player of Games", "Surface Detail" or"Consider Phlebas". He also wrote a large number of *excellent* regular fiction under the name Iain Banks. I recommend "The Crow Road" or "The Bridge".

"It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach." - The first two lines of "The Crow Road".

Banks was an absolute creative genius, and he positively spews out ideas in his writing. In that he's the modern Jack Vance, I feel. He creates worlds and characters that will challenge you and make you think about them long after you finish them, and periodic re-reads are just a joy of life.

Yeah, not to worry. The Culture books are next on the TBR pile ("next" having a very vague definition in my particular world.) I've read one of his fiction books, but thank you for the recommendation.

Robear wrote:

Greg Bear has died. The author of "Blood Music", "Darwin's Radio", "Hull Zero Three" and many other fascinating SF books, he was both prolific and personable. A writer's writer.

Loved "Blood Music", which I think was a short story, then a novel, IIRC.

Having finished The Lost Metal by Sanderson I think it's safe to say that knowing much about the Cosmere isn't required but being open to the idea of the Cosmere is. The central plot is explicitly driven by Cosmere forces and so if the whole "interconnected fantasy worlds" thing isn't your cup of tea then it will be a tough read.

I loved it, for the record. A very nice send-off to Era Two and its fun characters, together with a fun peak (well, more than a peak) at behind-the-curtains Cosmere stuff. Makes me excited for Stormlight 5.

Neuromancer series. Yay! Starring Miles Teller as Case Booo.

I vote for Jessica Chastain as Molly, and if they're doing a S2 and S3 with her that means that Burning Chrome and even the Johnny Mnemonic story is in play...

ranalin wrote:

I vote for Jessica Chastain as Molly, and if they're doing a S2 and S3 with her that means that Burning Chrome and even the Johnny Mnemonic story is in play...

I always saw Molly more as a Gina Carano type.

Moving onto my recommendation, I'm 50+ years LTTP but picked up a copy of Catch-22 on a whim as I've intentionally been trying to read a few more classics recently.

I was expecting it to be pretty drole TBH, but it is silly as juggling snakes, hilarious and light. Gives me a whiff of Vonnegut.

I kinda saw Molly more like a Carrie-Anne Moss, type, even before I saw The Matrix. Necromancer is one of my all-time favorite books and I reread it regularly. I hope the series does it justice, but it can't ruin that book for me.

I finally finished Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga. Really fantastic trilogy, great world building, and a fun multi-decade crime family story. It makes me want to watch kung fu movies and The Godfather trilogy.

I also read Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes. This is the first of his I’ve read where it didn’t quite grab me as hard as The First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold, but once it got going it was still an “enjoyable” read (grim violence not withstanding). Some of his character tropes are starting to feel a bit worn, but he still writes great battle scenes and I continue to be fascinated by the behind the scenes worldbuilding that underpins these stories.

beanman101283 wrote:

I finally finished Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga. Really fantastic trilogy, great world building, and a fun multi-decade crime family story. It makes me want to watch kung fu movies and The Godfather trilogy.

I also read Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes. This is the first of his I’ve read where it didn’t quite grab me as hard as The First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold, but once it got going it was still an “enjoyable” read (grim violence not withstanding). Some of his character tropes are starting to feel a bit worn, but he still writes great battle scenes and I continue to be fascinated by the behind the scenes worldbuilding that underpins these stories.

Keep reading, Red Country might be my favorite book ever.

And the Age of Madness trilogy is good stuff too.

What are you guys using to track books? Goodreads, spreadsheets, book journal, something else?

Deep Wheel Orcadia is a magical short novel, the first written in Orcadian - the dialect of the Orkney Isles - in 50 years, and science fiction to boot. Further, it's written in various forms of verse, each style holding throughout a short scene, and with a mildly Scots English translation immediately following the section. It won this year's Arthur C Clarke Award.

It's a tale of people on an isolated outpost away from a much more cosmopolitan area of civilization, trying to maintain their livelihoods and traditions as the world slowly leaves them behind. It's fascinating, because the language comes in easily digestible chunks, with translations, but the translations are those of a poet, and the scenes tell stories that demand two or three or more re-readings before moving on, such is their depth and beauty. In at least one you'll be murmuring the lines to yourself just to hear them. It will put you in mind of the sagas, but also various novels of social change and people finding themselves at pivot points in their lives.

On Amazon Kindle for $3.

And as is right and proper for a book about a metaphorical island - a space station - it starts with a ship, docking. A taste of the language...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Astrid docks

The chime o the tannoy is whit taks her back,
fer hid isno chaenged, nae more as the wirds
sommonan her tae the airlock: her wirds,
at sheu isno heard fer eyght geud year.

Sheu waatched the Deep Wheel approach, gray-green,
hids Central Staetion tirlan yet anent the yallo yotun, peedie
bolas teddert aroon hids ring,

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Astrid docks

The chime of the tannoy is what brings her back, because it hasn't changed, and neither have the words summoning her to the airlock: her words, which she hasn't heard for eight goodlong years.

She watched the Deep Wheel approach, grey-green, it's Central Station still turntwistwhirlspinning againstaboutbefore the yellow gas giant, little bolas ropemoormarried around its ring,

That sounds interesting.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

What are you guys using to track books? Goodreads, spreadsheets, book journal, something else?

I use a plain book journal. Most of it records what books I've read, but some of it is aspirational or even condemnatory...I have a list of the books I meant to read this year but didn't, for various reasons.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

What are you guys using to track books? Goodreads, spreadsheets, book journal, something else?

Goodreads.

I use Goodreads. I've attached my amazon account to it so when I open a ebook in kindle it adds it for me in goodreads. very helpful.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

What are you guys using to track books? Goodreads, spreadsheets, book journal, something else?

I use a google doc and track date finished, title and author.

I used to use Goodreads but never used any of the features. It was just another way to track my reading list.

Goodreads, but I rarely log in.

I don't use anything to track books, but I probably should. My "to read" list is a simple text file.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

What are you guys using to track books? Goodreads, spreadsheets, book journal, something else?

Goodreads, and a simple Word file that it is now 22 years old. Crazy!

Calibre.

I can track the new stuff i get through audible, but i reread a LOT and can't track them.

ranalin wrote:

I can track the new stuff i get through audible, but i reread a LOT and can't track them.

That's why I started using Goodreads. Also to keep me from buying stuff I already own. When I re-read something not in Goodreads, I enter it. When I buy something new, I enter it. I started tracking my reading about 5-6 years ago: I enter my progress weekly. And of course, I keep track of new stuff to read.

Started checking out goodreads. The UI for the web version is terrible. Haven't tried the app version yet. The social aspect might be a problem. I came across instances of people giving 1 star ratings for books that haven't come out because of some agenda they have and then there were people giving 5 stars to combat the 1 star reviews.

I liked that goodreads showed that books were part of a series. Had a few books I didn't know were part of a series.

I liked the ability to make your own shelf. A shelf in this case is the same as a category. A book can be part of multiple shelves. I didn't see a format field so I created shelves with different formats. I have books and sometimes the same book on different formats. Now that I think about it I will also make a location shelves because I have books on kindle, google, just on my pc, and other places.

Entering stuff is pretty easy. I haven't figured out how to import my kindle library yet. I thought it would be automatic since they are both owned by amazon.

So far it is okay.

I think there's a setting on the Kindle and in the app to export to Goodreads?

Robear wrote:

I think there's a setting on the Kindle and in the app to export to Goodreads?

I didn't find one but I did find it on the gooodreads web site. Under Settings->account settings->Apps there is a link to link your amazon purchases.

I seen instructions to do the same thing on kindle but they must have changed things because the settings the instructions noted don't exist.

Maybe that's how they ended up doing it. On my Kindle app on my iPad, there is a "GoodReads Shelves" link. There's also an "Unlink GoodReads" in Settings, so there must have been a "Link GoodReads" at one point, too.

I have not checked my physical Kindle device due to its hiding somewhere in the clutter.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

The social aspect might be a problem. I came across instances of people giving 1 star ratings for books that haven't come out because of some agenda they have and then there were people giving 5 stars to combat the 1 star reviews.

I ignore the social aspect except for my highly curated list of friends (who have added as much or more to my "to read" list as this thread, so thanks?).

I don't mind the UI much except it is slow as hell.

beanman101283 wrote:

I finally finished Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga. Really fantastic trilogy, great world building, and a fun multi-decade crime family story. It makes me want to watch kung fu movies and The Godfather trilogy.

I also read Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes. This is the first of his I’ve read where it didn’t quite grab me as hard as The First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold, but once it got going it was still an “enjoyable” read (grim violence not withstanding). Some of his character tropes are starting to feel a bit worn, but he still writes great battle scenes and I continue to be fascinated by the behind the scenes worldbuilding that underpins these stories.

I'm quite enjoying the "Half a ..." trilogy by Abercrombie at the moment, currently on the second one. But I hear they are quite different to his other books, is that right?

Also another vote for the Scholomance series after I finished the Golden Enclaves on the weekend. Brilliant stuff.

Scholomance is a great journey. And a totally different experience from Her Majesty's Dragon series.