Book Recommendations?

I finished Ancillary Justice A few weeks ago, and Three Body Problem A couple nights ago. I really liked both, although they are very different. Three Body Problem poses some really interesting ideas that I don't want to spoil but have given me a lot to think about. It has an uplifting theme about human resilience that is nice to hear once in a while.

I started Jane Mayer's Dark Money which is a history of the Koch brothers and other billionaires behind the rise of the radical right. Fascinating, but deeply depressing.

I'm reading RF Kuang's "Babel", and it's a masterpiece. Loving it so far. It deals with the relationship between translation and the infrastructure, creation and maintenance of empire. Absolutely fascinating.

I started Dan Simmons' Hyperion knowing basically nothing about it other than "science fiction novel people say is good."

It's always disorienting being dropped into a new created world, but I'm a sucker for a future setting where recognizable Catholics and Jews and such are still around side-by-side with made-up future religions. There's a place for Star-Trek-like "so humanity universally accepted the author's worldview since it is objectively the correct one, and then went into space to encounter aliens to allegorically represent those worldviews that humanity had abandoned as objectively incorrect," but it's always fun to see a future humanity with a plurality of cultures and philosophies PLUS alien intelligences.

The structure is very Canterbury Tales, a frame narrative around a bunch of connected (I'm too early to say how loosely or tightly) vignettes. It took a ways into the first vignette for it to really hook me, but it was very cool when it did. Sci-fi religious body horror, hell yeah.

Partway into the second vignette now. The narrative expends a lot of energy between vignettes doing worldbuilding and seeding mysteries; I'm excited to see how / if it all comes together in the end.

A lot of people didn't like that series, but I loved all 4 books. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

SallyNasty wrote:

A lot of people didn't like that series, but I loved all 4 books. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Same though it’s been forever since I read them. I keep meaning to come back to them.

I also recently finished The Three Body Problem. I found a lot of its ideas neat, but i struggled to get into the story itself. I'm not sure if it's an issue with the translation, or a cultural difference, but I found so much of the dialog stiff and unnatural sounding. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the rest of the series.

Recently finished Nona the Ninth. It was umm different, but not in the way the other two books were. In a series that is a bit hard to follow it was super hard to follow. Connecting the dot between this and the last book were kind of tough since it has been a while since I read the last book, but it also kind of felt like the dots were purposefully occluded to throw you a bit off balance anyway. I am not as negative on it as some other people, but at the same time it wasn't what I was expecting and it felt like a jarring sidestep that was more of a companion novel than a sequel (much like The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Rothfuss).

beanman101283 wrote:

I also recently finished The Three Body Problem. I found a lot of its ideas neat, but i struggled to get into the story itself. I'm not sure if it's an issue with the translation, or a cultural difference, but I found so much of the dialog stiff and unnatural sounding. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the rest of the series.

This was precisely my experience with it.

The dialog felt like it had had multiple trips through Google Translate, and the characters were similarly baffling in their affect and motivations.

Speaking of Rothfuss... What's his deal, these days? Any news?

Jonman wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

I also recently finished The Three Body Problem. I found a lot of its ideas neat, but i struggled to get into the story itself. I'm not sure if it's an issue with the translation, or a cultural difference, but I found so much of the dialog stiff and unnatural sounding. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the rest of the series.

This was precisely my experience with it.

The dialog felt like it had had multiple trips through Google Translate, and the characters were similarly baffling in their affect and motivations.

Third, and IMO the issues I had with the first book only get worse in each subsequent book, to the point where I completely lost interest in Death’s End and stopped reading about halfway through.
It’s not just the bad dialog, flat characters, uneven pacing, and constant unnecessary digression, but I also found the core concept of “The Dark Forest” that the series revolves around needlessly anthropocentric and contradictory, and have no idea why so many people think it’s some revelatory new sci-fi conceit when it feels more like the same “aliens are basically humans with weird anatomy” crutch that has plagued sci-fi since it’s inception.

While the criticisms about TBP's uneven plotting and flat characterization aren't exactly wrong, I didn't find it any worse than Asimov or Herbert or any number of other classic Western sci-fi authors, especially hard sci-fi authors. And better than some .

Ye Wenjie was very well-realized, I thought, and I wished the author had found more for her to do than be the catalyst for the plot in the first book and then largely disappear. I found a lot to enjoy in Da Shi's hard-nosed, ultra-pragmatic but also weirdly introspective approach to the fantastical events he witnesses too.

hbi2k wrote:

While the criticisms about TBP's uneven plotting and flat characterization aren't exactly wrong, I didn't find it any worse than Asimov or Herbert or any number of other classic Western sci-fi authors, especially hard sci-fi authors. And better than some .

You're not wrong in the slightest, but that's the point - we've moved past those early pioneers and we expect better now.

Good to know. I will probably check out William Gibson's Peripheral next.

I mean, you can expect whatever you want. I had it pitched to me as a bit of a throwback to that style of sci-fi so I got what I expected, and enjoyed it despite its faults.

Why are people even reading hard sci-fi if slightly flat characters and wooden dialogue are dealbreakers? Do you not understand what the genre is about?

I just finished Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. It's really hard 1950s sci-fi. Is the dialogue terrible? Sure. Is the plot full of holes? Big ones. Is there a single interesting idea which carried me through 200 pages? Absolutely.

I kinda want to reread Alas, Babylon now.

I was thinking about the tenets of cyberpunk, and much of the broad sci-fi I've encountered, being that they often rely at least implicitly on readily available electricity much as the utility it is today in many parts of the world. Of course there are situations in which electricity as an immediate resource is unavailable, for plot reasons.

But I wondered what kind of story beats we might find in a world built around provisional access to electricity, but where "the internet" or similar, and all manner of technowizzy, are popular. What effect would rolling blackouts or brownouts have on how cultures embrace "Johnny Mnemonic"-style couriers and whatever?

So I wondered if anyone had come across stories/books like this, where the rapid depletion of our ability to generate electricity as widely as we enjoy today collides with hacker culture and cyborganics and cetera.

muraii wrote:

I was thinking about the tenets of cyberpunk, and much of the broad sci-fi I've encountered, being that they often rely at least implicitly on readily available electricity much as the utility it is today in many parts of the world. Of course there are situations in which electricity as an immediate resource is unavailable, for plot reasons.

But I wondered what kind of story beats we might find in a world built around provisional access to electricity, but where "the internet" or similar, and all manner of technowizzy, are popular. What effect would rolling blackouts or brownouts have on how cultures embrace "Johnny Mnemonic"-style couriers and whatever?

So I wondered if anyone had come across stories/books like this, where the rapid depletion of our ability to generate electricity as widely as we enjoy today collides with hacker culture and cyborganics and cetera.

We already have a genre for that... it's called Steampunk

Maybe not quite what you’re looking for since it’s not a novel but I think the Cyberpunk Red sourcebook dips into that territory, though I haven’t gotten around to checking it out yet. It takes place in the 2040’s after Night City is almost completely leveled by the Corporate Wars and Johnny Silverhand’s nuke.

Math, you probably know about them, but Robert L Forward's "Dragon's Egg" and Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon The Deep" have similar elements to MoG yet are much more modern in sensibilities.

Muraii, take a look at Paolo Bagucigalpi's "The Water Knife". It's not exactly what you are looking for, but it's very similar. The over-arching theme of a near-future, high tech but resource-limited society with all that it implies is tackled in Ian McDonald's "Luna" series, too.

Robear wrote:

Muraii, take a look at Paolo Bagucigalpi's "The Water Knife". It's not exactly what you are looking for, but it's very similar. The over-arching theme of a near-future, high tech but resource-limited society with all that it implies is tackled in Ian McDonald's "Luna" series, too.

Also The Wind-up Girl by the same author, which deals a bit more with transhumanist themes - fits the cyberpunk bill a little more closely

Math wrote:

Why are people even reading hard sci-fi if slightly flat characters and wooden dialogue are dealbreakers? Do you not understand what the genre is about?

I just finished Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. It's really hard 1950s sci-fi. Is the dialogue terrible? Sure. Is the plot full of holes? Big ones. Is there a single interesting idea which carried me through 200 pages? Absolutely.

Read Hail Mary by Andy Weir. That and plenty of other sci fi is much bettr then the "old stuff" in that regard.

karmajay wrote:
Math wrote:

Why are people even reading hard sci-fi if slightly flat characters and wooden dialogue are dealbreakers? Do you not understand what the genre is about?

I just finished Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. It's really hard 1950s sci-fi. Is the dialogue terrible? Sure. Is the plot full of holes? Big ones. Is there a single interesting idea which carried me through 200 pages? Absolutely.

Read Hail Mary by Andy Weir. That and plenty of other sci fi is much bettr then the "old stuff" in that regard.

I'm going to have to disagree here as to the particulars. While "last century" sci-fi definitely has its issues (bad writing, misogyny, homophobia, a predilection for fascism), I would not put Weir in the sci-fi vanguard. He may be famous but there are vastly better writers to use as modern-day examples.

Robear wrote:

Math, you probably know about them, but Robert L Forward's "Dragon's Egg" and Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon The Deep" have similar elements to MoG yet are much more modern in sensibilities.

Thanks for the recommendations. I've read Vigne before but Forward is a new one.

karmajay wrote:
Math wrote:

Why are people even reading hard sci-fi if slightly flat characters and wooden dialogue are dealbreakers? Do you not understand what the genre is about?

I just finished Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. It's really hard 1950s sci-fi. Is the dialogue terrible? Sure. Is the plot full of holes? Big ones. Is there a single interesting idea which carried me through 200 pages? Absolutely.

Read Hail Mary by Andy Weir. That and plenty of other sci fi is much bettr then the "old stuff" in that regard.

I read The Martian and hated every page of it. Not because of the hard-scifi, but because of the Mark Watney character. I'm very gunshy of Weir now.

If you're looking for books full of ideas like Mission of Gravity but with better writing and modern sensibilities, allow me to recommend Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time and sequels.

I enjoyed his other books, but found Hail Mary to be really forced and dependent on a character who can low-key do *anything*. I could not finish it.

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

If you're looking for books full of ideas like Mission of Gravity but with better writing and modern sensibilities, allow me to recommend Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time and sequels.

Children of Time is a great book and comparing it to Mission definitely shows how scifi has evolved. Haven't read the sequels yet but they're on the list.

Jonman wrote:
Robear wrote:

Muraii, take a look at Paolo Bagucigalpi's "The Water Knife". It's not exactly what you are looking for, but it's very similar. The over-arching theme of a near-future, high tech but resource-limited society with all that it implies is tackled in Ian McDonald's "Luna" series, too.

Also The Wind-up Girl by the same author, which deals a bit more with transhumanist themes - fits the cyberpunk bill a little more closely

Can't recommend Wind-up Girl enough

ranalin wrote:
Jonman wrote:
Robear wrote:

Muraii, take a look at Paolo Bagucigalpi's "The Water Knife". It's not exactly what you are looking for, but it's very similar. The over-arching theme of a near-future, high tech but resource-limited society with all that it implies is tackled in Ian McDonald's "Luna" series, too.

Also The Wind-up Girl by the same author, which deals a bit more with transhumanist themes - fits the cyberpunk bill a little more closely

Can't recommend Wind-up Girl enough

I loved Bagucigalpi's Ship Breaker. I somehow remember very little of it, but reading it I knew I wanted to read The Windup Girl.