Comments | rhyo: Book recs

rhyo

Book recs

May 19, 2006 15:02

One of the less-charming aspects of reading a lot of fiction over many years is that I find I get fed up with a niche or genre or I end up reading my way through it - or at least reading my way through what is presented at the chain bookstores. (Let's not start that rant quite yet; we'll save it for another day). When I walk up to the mystery ( Read more... )

recs, books, simon r. green

Comments 7

tesserae_ May 19 2006, 23:29:37 UTC

I am *convinced* I am going to run out of things to really enjoy reading...the mysteries have started to blur into one another, I can't abide book club fiction, most "ethnic" storytelling (look! it's a metaphor!) or Improving Literature, and I'm with you on just wanting to slap the elves. Speculative fiction - some of it - looks the most interesting at this point - as long as I can avoid the ones where the characters are, say, named after minerals.

yes, yes, get ON with it!

The esposition fairy makes extended visits in speculative fiction, I find - I suspect that varies alot by genre, though.

rhyo May 20 2006, 01:25:17 UTC

I think the exposition fairy is especially present in extended series. So many books are now "series" that go on for many many books, and the author has the choice of whipping out the exposition fairy or losing the reader who hasn't read the previous 5 books.

And Portland in June is GREAT! We'll be gone one of those weeks (sometime REAL SOON the spouse should be telling me when), but we must work out something. My last several LA visits have been 3-day fly-down-and-back things, especially now that the boy has an apartment that doesn't allow dogs.

tesserae_ May 20 2006, 04:32:07 UTC

I'll email you with the dates as soon as I know for sure. Cool!

timian May 20 2006, 01:01:01 UTC

I ODed on science fiction about a decade ago, but I still do heartily recommend Greg Egan and Stanislaw Lem. Egan is probably the hardest of hard sci fi out there, and Lem is wonderfully ironic. You might give them a try.

rhyo May 20 2006, 01:20:27 UTC

Greg Egan - I get Greg Egan and Gregory Benford mixed up. One is a professor of physics and wrote stories about Killeen and the Mechs (which I love) and the other one write Teranesia, which started off well (about an island near Indonesia) and became obtuse about 2/3 of the way through. Okay, now I remember, the later is Greg Egan and the former is Gregory Benford. I knew I'd remember, probably just AFTER I hit "post".

Stanislaw Lem - I have Solaris, Mortal Engines, some of the Purx the Pilot books and.... I forget what else.

And, ooooooo, if you want to read something lovely, they are reprinting George Alec Effinger's Marid Audran series, which starts with When Gravity Fails. I will rant and rave about why this is good later, but I loved, loved, loved this....

And how are you, my fine tender-belly-buttoned friend? I'm very very behind in reading my LJ (I've learned to go - gasp! - weeks without LJ!) but that was a very awful-sounding incident. Did the Dr. ever decide what was going on?

timian May 21 2006, 08:28:14 UTC

Heh. Teranesia is the only book by Egan I haven't read. If you ever feel like giving him another chance, I recommend Schild's Ladder. I think it's his best work. It is however rather heavy on speculative science, which might not be everyone's thing.

And thanks for the rec! I'll look for those. They sound interesting.

Also, my belly button is fine. The bleeding never recurred, so I guess everything's okay. Uh. I hope. With luck, it will forever remain a mystery.

Also also, have you ever given any thought to getting a second dog? The terms of my rent agreement have changed, and I won't be able to keep mine, and since you're such a sterling owner, I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

sentinelsmuse February 13 2010, 03:40:00 UTC

i stopped reading sci fi about 30 years ago and in the last two years have picked it up again - i don't know if you have ataste for apocalyptic fiction but i've been readin SM Stirling's series that starts with Dies the Fire and David Weber's seHonor Harrington series (think horatio hornblower as female and in space) I'm also reading another series of his that involves space travel, 18th century naval battles and something akin to th reformation. Given the above rec you also might like Flewelling's Nightstalker series, I'll give Simon Green a try yit reminds me of that series