Planet Rugby Forum

Jimcardiff wrote:I have started listening to scifi audiobooks on my comute ,just started Dune , the journey seems a lot shorter.

My dad just finished listening to them up to Children of Dune. Said he hadn't read them in ages, but didn't really have the energy to get through them. Audiobooks seem like a great idea for longish commutes.

Jimcardiff wrote:I have started listening to scifi audiobooks on my comute ,just started Dune , the journey seems a lot shorter.

It will start seeming a lot longer again if you move onto the prequels. *shudders

Started reading Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation (Southern Reach trilogy). That's some crazy shit. Much more insane than the movie (which was brilliant). Sort or a cross between Heart of Darkness and David Lynch at his weirdest. Quite something.

Chuckles1188 wrote:The void books are considerably shorter than most of his others - 800 pages apiece versus over 1100 each, on average, with TND.

They are long but that's because he wants to show his working. If you're not interested in lengthy descriptions of quantum entanglements and nano-tech weaponry you're reading the wrong author.

I will say that accessing PFH via audiobook seems like madness to me, but I'm not huge on audiobooks in general

I gave up on the audiobook and read the rest of it, wish I'd done that from the beginning, lesson learned. Finished Pandora's Star anyway, it's excellent so I'll definitely keep going.

At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

Keep the tips coming lads, I am reading the new David Baldacci at the moment

tc27 wrote:At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

Read them all. Very good.

sorCrer wrote:

tc27 wrote:At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

Read them all. Very good.

He's just released another one - second book in the 'Rise of the Jain' series.

tc27 wrote:

sorCrer wrote:

tc27 wrote:At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

Read them all. Very good.

He's just released another one - second book in the 'Rise of the Jain' series.

see previous page or you will be cored!

tc27 wrote:

sorCrer wrote:

tc27 wrote:At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

Read them all. Very good.

He's just released another one - second book in the 'Rise of the Jain' series.

Cheers, I'm straight onto that.

Have recentlty got all of the Culture books on Audible - and most have Peter Kenney reading - reads really well - brings out the humour quite well

I've just been starting through the culture series too. I'm part way through Use of weapons (just passed the part where Skaffen-Amitskaw gave the present of a hat to Zakalwe after he'd been decapitated and was being rebuilt )

There really are some great characters, so much so that it's disappointing when they die. I loved the Irdians, I'm secretly hoping that they might feature again at some point..

I found state of the art a bit tough going though, I don't think his style suits short stories - the story ends just when you get to know the characters. It's it worth sticking with? I moved on from it about 1/3 of the way through

With the short stories some are better than others, so you won't miss as much reading them all.
Do read the story State of the Art, it's an actual Culture story. Nice little story in its own right and gives some back story to Diziet Sma. It's the only time a central protagonist appears in more than one book.

So reading Tchaikovsky's Children of Time. Has great reviews but I'm struggling. I'm up to where the shuttle has crash landed and Portia has succeeded in the mission dressed as a Beetle.

ukjim wrote:

Nolanator wrote:With the short stories some are better than others, so you won't miss as much reading them all.
Do read the story State of the Art, it's an actual Culture story. Nice little story in its own right and gives some back story to Diziet Sma. It's the only time a central protagonist appears in more than one book.

[nerd]Zakalwe says hi[/nerd]

Surely you mean Vatueil? The absolute bastard. (I did say central protagonist )

tc27 wrote:

sorCrer wrote:

tc27 wrote:At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

Read them all. Very good.

He's just released another one - second book in the 'Rise of the Jain' series.

Found an uncorrected proof copy of Asher's The Departure this morning. Well pleased.

tc27 wrote:At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

That link is 395 bucks

Zakar wrote:

tc27 wrote:At the risk of repeating myself I cannot recommend Neil Asher's Polity novels enough.

Similar to the Culture in so far as most of the protagonists are from an AI ruled society - the antagonists are human 'separatists' a race of crab like genocidal aliens (the Prador) and the left overs of previous civilizations that could have crushed the Polity like a bug.

Its decent and accessible hard sci fi.

Good place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Prador-Novel-Pol ... oks&sr=1-2

That link is 395 bucks

Tc selling his book

I just found out Gene Wolfe died in April. I'm a little taken aback at just how much this news has upset me.

Hellraiser wrote:I just found out Gene Wolfe died in April. I'm a little taken aback at just how much this news has upset me.

Wait what? That is bad news.

flaggETERNAL wrote:

Hellraiser wrote:I just found out Gene Wolfe died in April. I'm a little taken aback at just how much this news has upset me.

Wait what? That is bad news.

I can honestly say that there are only two occasions where literature has changed my life. The first was when I read Lord of the Rings in my mid teens; the second, and probably more profound, was when I read The Book of the New Sun in my early thirties.

Hellraiser wrote:

flaggETERNAL wrote:

Hellraiser wrote:I just found out Gene Wolfe died in April. I'm a little taken aback at just how much this news has upset me.

Wait what? That is bad news.

I can honestly say that there are only two occasions where literature has changed my life. The first was when I read Lord of the Rings in my mid teens; the second, and probably more profound, was when I read The Book of the New Sun in my early thirties.

Can't say the same on hearing this news besides shock but I completely understand how you feel. Felt similar when Terry Pratchett passed.

Was going to say, just that. I was quite upset wihen Pratchett passed. The main author through my teenage years through to now. Still get a bit upset when I see discussions about him on Twitter etc. So many people for whom his works genuinely mean something special.

Was a bit upset when Iain Banks passed, too. He's the author next after Pratchett who's works I read the most and enjoyed the most through my formative years.


Those to men had some visions of "ideal" society that I can completely endorse, plus some fairly scathing criticisms and observations on our current society.

This thread put me onto Peter F. Hamilton and have to say I'm a huge fan now. Read Great North Road first, will be finished up Commonwealth in the next couple of days, and think I'm just going to go straight onto Night's Dawn.

Finished a rereading of Consider Phlebas 5 minutes ago. Damned good. Going to read them all again.

danthefan wrote:This thread put me onto Peter F. Hamilton and have to say I'm a huge fan now. Read Great North Road first, will be finished up Commonwealth in the next couple of days, and think I'm just going to go straight onto Night's Dawn.

Night's Dawn is excellent and weird.

Just finished The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. Brilliant book. This bloke is a major new talent - up there with the best of the modern sci-fi authors based on this effort. Totally original, which is a rare thing nowadays. Quite an interesting take on time travel, along with horror elements.

Bindi wrote:Just finished The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. Brilliant book. This bloke is a major new talent - up there with the best of the modern sci-fi authors based on this effort. Totally original, which is a rare thing nowadays. Quite an interesting take on time travel, along with horror elements.

Cheers. I'm onto that. Just read a great review.

sorCrer wrote:Finished a rereading of Consider Phlebas 5 minutes ago. Damned good. Going to read them all again.

Finished Player of Games recently. Hadn't read it in a long time and was possibly only my second read-through. The epilogue pure Banks. Literally the last two words of the book throwing the entire story into a different context.
The Culture is always in the driving seat and playing several moves ahead of everyone else in the Galactic Game of Thrones.

ukjim wrote:for all the expanse lovers out there.

That's class. Missing the bit with Prax and Dr. Strickland.
-You're not that guy........I am that guy.


Amos is probably my favourite character. Having read through the novels and all the novellas and origin comics, he's one of the more fascinating personalities. He also has some of the most fun one-liners. Worthy of The Hound.
"OK, I'm gonna need my gun back".
Wes Chatham does a great job, IMO.

Nolanator wrote:

sorCrer wrote:Finished a rereading of Consider Phlebas 5 minutes ago. Damned good. Going to read them all again.

Finished Player of Games recently. Hadn't read it in a long time and was possibly only my second read-through. The epilogue pure Banks. Literally the last two words of the book throwing the entire story into a different context.
The Culture is always in the driving seat and playing several moves ahead of everyone else in the Galactic Game of Thrones.

What was that? Edit: Scrap that, I was confusing it with Use of Weapons.

So reading Tchaikovsky's Children of Time. Has great reviews but I'm struggling. I'm up to where the shuttle has crash landed and Portia has succeeded in the mission dressed as a Beetle.

I really enjoyed Children of Time, it's very well thought out. Need to find the sequel, which for some reason the Leadenall Waterstones doesn't have.

Brazil wrote:

Nolanator wrote:

sorCrer wrote:Finished a rereading of Consider Phlebas 5 minutes ago. Damned good. Going to read them all again.

Finished Player of Games recently. Hadn't read it in a long time and was possibly only my second read-through. The epilogue pure Banks. Literally the last two words of the book throwing the entire story into a different context.
The Culture is always in the driving seat and playing several moves ahead of everyone else in the Galactic Game of Thrones.

What was that?

Serious spoilers.
That was a lot longer and more waffly than I intended when I started typing.

Nolanator wrote:

Brazil wrote:

Nolanator wrote:

sorCrer wrote:Finished a rereading of Consider Phlebas 5 minutes ago. Damned good. Going to read them all again.

Finished Player of Games recently. Hadn't read it in a long time and was possibly only my second read-through. The epilogue pure Banks. Literally the last two words of the book throwing the entire story into a different context.
The Culture is always in the driving seat and playing several moves ahead of everyone else in the Galactic Game of Thrones.

What was that?

Serious spoilers.

Spoiler: show

In the book, Gurgeh is beating everyone in their giant board game which decides how their society plays out in the Azad Empire. He's ready to beat the sitting emperor in the final, but the emperor goes off the reservation and tries to kill everyone. The small drone Flere-Imsaho, which was assisting Gurgeh, turns out to be an SC agent and goes all pew-pew-pew and saves him. Fairly standard Mind (well, drone) ex Machina in the climax of a Culture novel.
Then, in the epilogue, the F-I reveals that the Culture manipulated Gurgeh into playing the Game in order to bring the Empire crashing down as they disapproved of the social structure. The final two words reveal that F-I actually posed as the psychotic ex-SC drone which early in the novel manipulated Gurgeh into cheating and then blackmailed him into reaching out to SC to do it a favour. That set the entire plot into motion.

The Minds that control the direction in which the Culture develops are many moves ahead of everyone else.


Similarly, the epilogue in Surface Detail revealed that Vatueil, the soldier fighting in the simulated War in Heaven, is actually Zakalwe from Use of Weapons.* In Surface Detail the Culture are at pains to claim no involvement in influencing this simulated war in a different civilisation, but in the end they're right up to their armpits directing other societies to what they feel is a better set-up.

*Vatueil is an anagram of the half-sister, Livueta, he mutilated in UoW (I had to look her name up). The reveal that Zakalwe is actually not the half-brother you think is itself another revealed in the epilogue of UoW.

It's trick he used a lot to completely turn the story you've just read on it's head. Character motivations etc are all under a totally different light now.
He used it a lot, but I've always enjoyed it.

That was a lot longer and more waffly than I intended when I started typing.

I read it and don't remember any of that

The Water Bear. Kind of a bit Iain M Banksy. Especially interesting since hundreds of water bears are now loose on the moon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VNSQ1R5

I enjoyed book 1 of Asher's Transformation series - the Black AI and all that - but book 2 turned into a real slog. Complexity for the sake of it, given what actually happens is quite straightforward (although he leans on his deus ex machinae a bit too much).

Finally finished Tiamat's Wrath, bringing me up to date with the Expanse novels. Had to go and refresh my memory of the two novels before it to remind myself how certain main players were positioned leading into TW.

Then I realised that I'd missed one of the novellas set between the main books. Strange Dogs. Read it earlier and thought that it's a brilliant proper sci-fi short. Told through they eyes of an 11 year old girl, daughter of colonists on a new planet as she explores the area around their house by herself. Lots of stuff relating to the main story arc hinted at, of course, but well worth the read in its own right.

Nolanator wrote:Finally finished Tiamat's Wrath, bringing me up to date with the Expanse novels. Had to go and refresh my memory of the two novels before it to remind myself how certain main players were positioned leading into TW.

Then I realised that I'd missed one of the novellas set between the main books. Strange Dogs. Read it earlier and thought that it's a brilliant proper sci-fi short. Told through they eyes of an 11 year old girl, daughter of colonists on a new planet as she explores the area around their house by herself. Lots of stuff relating to the main story arc hinted at, of course, but well worth the read in its own right.

Just bought the first book. I hardly ever read fiction these days, but i like the TV show a lot so I will give it a ago.

Enjoyed the RR Haywood's Extracted time travel trilogy, Extracted, Executed and Extinct.
Not exactly hard sci-fi, and as (almost) always with time travel the plot doesn't quite stand up to close scrutiny, but good fun.

Sydney Uni is offering a Sci-fi writing course this year. It's a bit short notice but would be interesting to try.