I would still recommend Endymion and Rise of Endymion, if you ever get the hankering to return to that fantastic grand universe again. In real life those came after a huge multi-year break in between, so I’d mostly forgotten a lot of stuff, and that’s probably for the best. I really enjoyed them both.
Eh, if Scuzz wants to stop after Fall of Hyperion, let him. The Endymion books have some good qualities but also a lot of weaknesses and it is very subjective.
In my old age, I don’t always finish books or series. I’ve learned to follow my taste.
I also stopped after the first two Hyperion novels, seemed like it reached a pretty solid conclusion. I woudln’t be averse to reading more stuff in that universe though, I may come back to the Endymion books at some point. Got to get through The Expanse first though.
Right now I am in, for me, the unusual situation of having 20+ books in my shelves that I haven’t read, and an unusual number of them are parts of a series. I may get those books eventually, that would fit my MO but for now I think I will be moving on.
The next/last two do get much more personal and you get to really get into the main characters, but they also require a decent familiarity with Zen Buddhism to grok. I think all four are excellent, and I would call out #2 as the weakest, but then I read Zen books.
Continuing in The Culture vein: Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks. When talking about Inversions I said that all Culture books ended up being about “How should an advanced society interact with a primitive one?”, and that’s not exactly untrue here, but this one is really about “War! What is it good for?” (Perhaps you could have guessed this by the book’s title.) The framing device was similar, in that it had two stories told through alternating chapters, though they were much more closely entwined. Ultimately, I felt that the story itself was less compelling than the other Banks books I’ve read, though I thought the philosophical bits about the use of weapons (and weapons’ use of us) was better. For the record, Banks agrees with the song (no surprise there); once you start a war, anything and everything is permissible, and once anything is permissible, you can never go back, even if you “win”.
I finished the first one, and I’m thinking you were talking about how rough it is regarding torture, drug use, and war atrocities. And it is pretty rough, I agree, but I’m going to continue. Definitely a different ride than I expected.
I still like the overall writing, but the structure is strange, big chunks of time are glossed over that I would have expected at least a little story development around.
I’d even recommend it. I wish I had.
Ultimately it’s the one through line of the whole series. That war changes a society.
Excession is where the series really took off for me. The first 3 books are all interesting stories, but it’s not until you start getting Minds and the like directly involved that things really open up imo.
Currently I’m rereading the Lost Fleet. Or at least the first book, we’ll see if I make it through the whole thing again. I think there are even new ones I haven’t read at this point.
Yep. And a lot of that’s based on real history.
Through Struggle, the Stars a hard-sci-fi military novel by John J Lumpkin. The author pulled a reverse Baldtree, and went from writing books (the Human Reach series) to making video games (Terra Invicta). Both his books and his game are marked by a dedication to hard-sci-fi-ness; e.g. there are no shields and there are no magic drives. A railgun round hitting a space shuttle is about as devastating as you would expect, and even relatively minor damage to a complex system can sometimes spiral out of control and lead to a ship loss. Ships move around the solar system by throwing reaction mass out the back really fast, which lets them accelerate at 0.0011G’s, or maybe 0.0012G’s if they are a real fast mover. The one area where the author cheats is with Algebraist style wormholes. These have to be moved to their destination using slower-than-light travel, but once placed they enable instant travel to their paired wormhole.
It’s ok? The author is really only interested in ships and warfare and national politics, and while he writes fine characters he is not really interested in characters so much as he is in the physics of space combat. Also like the game, it is a world where humanity has advanced physical sciences and can go out to the stars, but has not yet overcome the national and ethnic rivalries of Earth or the system of MAD that has been with us since the 50’s. If anything the situation is more fraught, since there are ~3 new types of MAD (orbital bombardment of Earth, destruction of key links in the space industry which supplies Earth, or destruction of the laboriously placed wormhole gates which link Earth and its colonies). So you have a bunch of nations crammed together both on Earth and in space, trying to navigate between competition and catastrophe.
I’ve enjoyed these from the beginning.
There are still novels in the main series written as recently as last year, plus at least 2 series spinoffs that I remember.
All very readable, IMO.
I recall reading at least one of those, but hearing there have been new ones is great.
I’m enjoying the crap out of the first one again, so I’ll probably reread the whole series and then pick up the ones I haven’t read at this rate.
Here’s a good interview with Martha Wells for those of you who are Murderbot fans like me. (audio only)
Having finished the First Law trilogy, I was a little bereft of new books that I wanted to read, so went back to my library and settled on a reread of the Troy series by the (late) king of heroic fantasy, David Gemmell. A palate cleanser, if you will, and yet… Gemmell’s characters tend to fall into a few “stock” archetypes (that go again in all his books), but he writes those few archetypes well, and almost never as black and white. Helikaon is the main protagonist, but while a hero to one side, he is equally a villain to the other - and with very good reason. I read an interview with him once that talked about how he had grown up among violent men, and it shows in his writing. I can’t think of many other writers who can write violent men more believable than what Gemmel did. And while his books tends to focus on themes of heroism and redemption, he is not shy of killing off his main characters. It’s not grimdark (by today’s definitions), but victories in Gemmell’s books never come without a heavy price.
The three books (Lord of the SIlver Bow, Shield of Thunder, and Fall of Kings) cover the story of the Trojan war from years before it starts to the end and follows all of the mythical heroes and some “invented” characters. No gods, goddesses or magic; the only supernatural element is the gift of prophecy granted to some characters (and rarely believed by those who hear them) While Gemmell isn’t necessarily historically correct always (he has a real thing for dual wielding sword fighters, combat that belongs in fantasy writing but makes little sense in reality, and some viewpoints that are occasionally way too modern); but he tries hard to give a historically plausible version of the story (he’s not married to the myth, but most elements get a nod along the way) and he gets a lot of things right that most authors don’t. One I really loved was his understanding that all of these mythic kings (except - perhaps - Priam) were not kings as we would understand them - they were at best, robber barons (something even Homer makes clear - most ruled “kingdoms” whose dynasties were at most a couple of generations), at worst, they were nothing more than pirates with a following. The measure of their “heroism” was generally in their capacity to murder, kill and little more. Even Odysseus, known more for his cunning and rhetorical skills than his ability in combat, is referred to as the “Sacker of Cities”.
Odysseus is one of the highlights of the series to me. A pirate/trader/robber baron with a gift for storytelling/acting, Gemmell weaves one of the few fictional versions of this character big enough to fill the shoes of the mythical one. Most of his versions of the mythical characters work for me, and Gemmell add a few new characters that fit right in. I particularly enjoyed Gemmell’s version of the Trojan Horse, as well as the way Gemmell frequently brings things full circle for his characters. And the ending is very satisfying. On the negative side: These were Gemmell’s last books, and the final volume was finished by his wife after his death. While I’m glad we got the finished work, it’s probably the weakest of the three. There are also quite a few viewpoint characters (including a relatively major one) who add nothing to the story and should probably have been cut.
That being said, I’ve read a lot of retellings of the Trojan War, and - despite some flaws - I think Gemmell’s trilogy probably remains my favorite modern version.
Ohh, thank you @strategy , for this recommendation. I’ve loved David Gemmels Waylander and his story of Druss so much over the years, but never thought to give these a read.
I agree very much with your assesment about his character description skills - Druss is a complex character that would be easy to mischaracterize in a book, but is done so damn well by Gemmel.
Anyways - these books just hit my “to read next” list, so thanks!
I just wrapped up Tress of the Emerald Sea by Sanderson. I knew nothing going into it and really enjoyed it throughout. Its got a light, fun tone and the chapters whizzed on by. Tress was a great character with drive that keeps the story going. And since it’s Sanderson, the magic + world have a logical, rule-based system that’s fun to see it explored.
I haven’t read much in the Cosmere® or even Sanderson in a long time (not going to dive into a ten-book fantasy series where only half the books are written due to past experiences). There’s sprinkles of the broader universe in here and handled well in the sense that I didn’t need to know about the Cosmere to enjoy the story. It left me intrigued enough to want to know more though.
There was one thing that I couldn’t get out of my mind. Minor spoilers / want to go in blind / first chapter stuff. I read the Book of Koli by M R Carey not too long ago which has a similar “seeds / spores are deadly and can kill you in an instant” premise. I kept thinking that Tress’s world should be an absolute hellscape where people are barely surviving and hanging on. The effects and fear of the spores is there but muted in comparison to Koli’s world. Certainly didn’t affect my enjoyment, more a musing around how two authors handled a similar world-building idea.
Definitely looking forward to the next 3 books from the Kickstarter.
If you already like Gemmell, then don’t hesitate for a moment. Gemmell was an incredibly consistent writer in terms of story, content and style, and I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with anything of his I’ve read. You know what you’re getting when you pick up one of his books, and that’s not a bad thing. Troy may be his best work; and while it is historical - the one and only time he has done that - it’s still very much a Gemmell story.
Went on to read his Lion of Macedon duology, which is the only other time he wrote a “historical” series; but I had forgotten how much of a fantasy tale this story of Parmenion, Philip and Alexander actually is. Still very entertaining (as all Gemmell’s works are) - if one can look past the idealized image of Sparta used in the tale - but here you get Chaos Gods, seers, magi, and lots of other stuff mixed into the tale of Ancient Greece.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
I did see Blade Runner many many years ago, but I have never read this book before. There are quite a few differences in the two so I wasn’t really spoilered by my memories of the movie. The book is short and an easy read. Except for one chapter dealing with a side character and what passes for religion in the future world. I won’t compare the two, as I don’t want to spoil anything for those who might want to read it. But I did enjoy this on it’s own. Deckard is surrounded by a different world than in the movie and I think I like what the book does better. The main question of the book regards the androids and how they should be treated, which I admit for awhile I questioned. Maybe I had missed it earlier but later in the book that was explained.
As for the million dollar question, is Deckard an android? Based on the book I would have to say no. But there are certain ambiguities in the book that could lead you to believe otherwise. But the answer I got was no.
I would definitely recommend this book to others.