Son, I was reading stuff like Black Destroyer when you punks were /me chokes on choler
If you’re a fan of science fiction and haven’t at least heard of The Stars My Destination then … are you really a fan of science fiction? I mean, maybe if you’re one of those weirdos who has seen the Star Wars movies and considers that science fiction, I guess.
Or simply under 40 :)
I didn’t hear of it until maybe 5-10 years back.
A twist on the Qt3 classic #fuckStarWarshaters
I mean, Bester on Babylon 5 is named after Alfred Bester, specifically because The Stars My Destination is so awesome.
Or at least, that’s how I encountered it.
That is because you are a person of culture and refinement.
NK Jemisin is so damn good. Absolutely a “monster, all-time classic [author]”, IMHO.
I always check these lists for A Fire Upon the Deep. If it’s missing, the list is nonsense.
Brin listed it :)
I’d add Nine Fox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee to the list. It’s the only recent sci-fi book that I’ve read that I would recommend unreservedly to any nerd.
A few tag lines:
What if Sherlock Holmes, but with tactical puzzles rather than mysteries?
What if Dominions 5, but in space?
What if WarHammer40K, but Korean?
It’s a fast and clever read, with a wild assortment of ideas.
You’re in for a treat. I feel it’s my favorite of all of his novels, although Aurora is probably more predictive (and ten times as depressing.)
If you want something to really chew on, then Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun is one to consider.
Sometimes a person’s experience with a book is so different than mine that I wonder if there’s a completely different story being passed around under the same title. Warhammer 40K is , to my mind, on the complete opposite end of the sci fi universe from Ninefox, and the last thing I’d ever call it is “fast.” Now the “clever” and “wild assortment of ideas” statements are pretty undeniable, though whether said ideas land for you is inevitably a matter of taste.
The Broken Earth series was pretty interesting, I thought. They weren’t my favorite books of all time or anything but it definitely felt very unique to me and I enjoyed them quite a bit.
Seconded.
“I’ll take Sci-Fi Classics for $200 Alex.”
“This book about the far future and aliens reads like an esoteric history of the Roman Empire written by Salvador Dali.”
Ahhh, I feel like you just told me Santa Claus doesn’t exist. I liked Nine Fox so much that I assumed everyone else would like it at least a bit.
For the WarHammer40K comparison, I just meant that the setting is a militaristic and totalitarian space empire that’s really concerned with putting down heretics.
Sorry. :( I’m glad you (and clearly others) like it so much. It’s a book I want to like, but I’ve bounced off it several times now. A big part of it, for me, is not being able to connect to the protagonist.
The Book of the New Sun is so good, and this is an extremely accurate description.
One of the things that reading NK Jemisin reminds me is that, yeah, most science fiction is written by white dudes. To be clear, I don’t have a problem with the classic SF canon (for the most part), and I don’t think her writing is at all diversity-for-diversity’s sake or anything, just really good. But it just provides a really distinctly different flavor, to me, in the same way that the Three Body Problem also provides a non-Western flavor (I’m sure part of that is due to the translation), and how Le Guin’s work, too.
My wife swapped for the first book of this series at the little library box down the street thinking it might be of interest to me. I’m only a few pages in so don’t know what to think. But one of my colleagues at work raved about it so I’ll give it a shot.
Yep, exactly. It just felt like such a fresh take without trying to be a fresh take, if you know what I mean. Like you said, diversity without for diversity’s sake, just something that maybe comes naturally given that it’s written by a woman who also happens to be a minority instead of the usual white dude.
Nice, hope you like it. I found it be an interesting world and the whole story just felt very different from what I usually see in science fiction…
Agree (it’s my favorite of his novels, though I guess I can agree that it’s your favorite of his novels), agree, agree.