Book Thread 2018^H9

The Quantum Thief was great. I thought the sequels just okay, however. Passages taking place within the stable cultures of the solar system were excellent, but the higher level space opera stuff left me cold.

Awful title, lame cover art. Excellent book. Seriously I read a lot of astro biology & SETI books, this one does what it says on the tin and covers in a non trivial way a bunch of explanations and considerations around the Fermi Paradox. Highly recommended.

I found a bag of like new Ian Rankin books at the transfer station the other day and spent a long time trying to figure out if he was a crime novelist or a mystery novelist before jumping into the first book. The consensus seems to be “crime” and, after reading the first book I agree even though the protagonist in a police detective. Anyway, the first book in the series was Knots and Crosses and I enjoyed it so I’ll slip him into my rotation until he becomes repetitive,

Rebus is a great series…

Not sure this applies to noir, since the central mystery in a noir tends to be a MacGuffin. Lehane’s 6 Kinzie and Gennaro books (A Drink Before the War, Gone Baby Gone, etc) are all different enough from each other (and they’re relatively short), so they can easily be read back-to-back without losing interest (though, given the subject material and the fact that they’re noir, you may lose your will to live.)

Has anyone read Dennis E Taylor’s Bobiverse trilogy? I’m almost finished with the second now, and though I’m entertained enough to continue to the third, I have kind of a love-hate relationship with them. They’re an unabashed white guy geek fantasy, like Ready Player One, but without all the annoying 80’s nostalgia. And they’re pretty reactionary, though not in a self-aware way–I suspect the author wouldn’t think of himself that way. But they’re also light reads and are pretty fun.

We had a fairly lively discussion on the series a year or so ago. I personally liked the series a great deal, though I thought that the author was sort of phoning it in with the last book.

I’m definitely looking forward to Taylor’s next effort.

I love those books, but they are fucked up and dark. I re-read the series every couple of years.

Just finished Blindsight based on the multiple recommendations here, and I have to say fuck you all for making me read this, but like in the nicest way.

This book was awesome and awful. Not a pleasure to read by any stretch of the imagination, but fascinating and repulsive all at once. Really great hard science fiction. Thanks for the posts about it; I don’t know that I would’ve found it otherwise.

Now you know how we feel.

The Delirium Brief, by Charles Stross. The eight book in the Laundry Files series.

I guess I’m all caught up now. I came into the Laundry Files fairly late (I thought) and had the wonderful luxury of always having another book ready to read if I was in the mood to continue the series. Now I guess I have to wait for him to write another one, like some kind of commoner.

The book’s a good one. If you’ve enjoyed most of the Laundry Files books you’ll probably rank this one pretty highly. It reminded me a lot of Jim Butcher’s Changes in that Stross takes the main characters and settings, pours them into a blender and hits “puree”, so that at the end of the novel everything is royally fucked up.

I’ve got to pick these up sometime. I just finished reading his A Colder War short story to get a feel for him and I loved it.

Now reading Peter the Great by Massie and going to try to stick to history for a while, or at least non-fiction. He’s not my favorite history writer, but I’m getting sucked in nevertheless.

The other day I finished the Department Q series (Jussi Adler-Olsen). Pretty good crime series overall but the major story arc, if there really is one, is somewhat lacking. Haven’t watched the show.

Wanted to mention the Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve. Post-apocalyptic sci-fi, kinda pulp/YA, but very satisfying. Particularly the first one; the books get a little weaker as the series progresses. Love, love, love the premise.

I finished up Annihilation a few days back and jumped right into Authority, really liking this series so far. Also really cool how both books take such different approaches and POV for basically the same story. I’m curious to see the movie now, but I’ll probably wait until after I’ve read all three to do so.

The new David Raker book by Tim Weaver is out You Were Gone

Not started this yet but looking forward to it.

Gets to you, doesn’t it. Welcome to the club. :) If you’d like a different view of some of the story I’d highly recommend Echopraxia.

Working my way thru these.I like them a lot.

Checking out Book Depository…

Thanks.

Now read Watt’s Rifter trilogy. It is likewise sci-fi that is fascinating and repulsive and hard. Watts isn’t afraid to go where other authors might balk, following the logic of events all the way to their awful conclusions. Strong stomach required. FYI: Watts has made this trilogy (and Blindsight) free under a creative commons license.

I haven’t read the Rifter books, thanks for the link.

I’ve really enjoyed the Galaxy’s Edge series (not to be confused with the magazine). It’s a re-telling of the Star Wars mythos from the perspective of the Storm Troopers. Changes the formula up in several places but the overarching themes are largely present.

Does a great job of presenting military action from the perspective of the soldiers fighting. This is hard core Military Sci-Fi, which seems appropriate for Memorial Day weekend. May not be for everyone though.


(Amazon leaves out Imperator, which is a companion / background novel on one of the characters - which shouldn’t be read until past book 5 to avoid spoilers)