[amphibian]

caladanbrood, on 06 April 2011 - 09:41 AM, said:

House of Suns is probably my second favourite Reynolds, after Chasm City. Recommend giving it a go as soon as you can.

Currently about 100 pages into The Prefect. I had heard some reviews that said it wasn't as good as earlier books, but I am finding it very enjoyable so far!

Looks as though you pretty much dislike the Revelation Space narrative arc. Shame, that.

House of Suns was certainly enjoyable and a great read, but I would slot Terminal World over it because it's a bit more accessible. I'm really looking forwards to Reynolds' new series of books - which may have nothing to do with his earlier books.

What if we had a Richard Morgan/Alastair Reynolds/one similar author (Stover, Butcher?) sub-forum?

This post has been edited by amphibian: 06 April 2011 - 04:09 PM

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 06 April 2011 - 04:08 PM, said:

caladanbrood, on 06 April 2011 - 09:41 AM, said:

House of Suns is probably my second favourite Reynolds, after Chasm City. Recommend giving it a go as soon as you can.

Currently about 100 pages into The Prefect. I had heard some reviews that said it wasn't as good as earlier books, but I am finding it very enjoyable so far!

Looks as though you pretty much dislike the Revelation Space narrative arc. Shame, that.

House of Suns was certainly enjoyable and a great read, but I would slot Terminal World over it because it's a bit more accessible. I'm really looking forwards to Reynolds' new series of books - which may have nothing to do with his earlier books.

What if we had a Richard Morgan/Alastair Reynolds/one similar author (Stover, Butcher?) sub-forum?

Yeah, that might be a nice idea seeing as we love those authors.

I am also looking FWD to his new series. Posiedon's Children (of which BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH will be volume 1), it sounds so interesting!

[Binder of Demons]

amphibian, on 06 April 2011 - 04:08 PM, said:

What if we had a Richard Morgan/Alastair Reynolds/one similar author (Stover, Butcher?) sub-forum?

Throw NEAL ASHER in with those 2 and you'd have a good sci-fi sub-forum. Especially since those 3 names seem to come up together so regularly in recommendation threads.

[caladanbrood]

The 5 really big-hitters in sci-fi that I would categorise as must-read are probably Reynolds, Asher, Peter F Hamilton, Iain M Banks and Morgan - would be a good group to have a forum for

[Abyss]

Binder of Demons, on 06 April 2011 - 04:40 PM, said:

amphibian, on 06 April 2011 - 04:08 PM, said:

What if we had a Richard Morgan/Alastair Reynolds/one similar author (Stover, Butcher?) sub-forum?

Throw NEAL ASHER in with those 2 and you'd have a good sci-fi sub-forum. Especially since those 3 names seem to come up together so regularly in recommendation threads.

We tried Morgan for a while - the forum went +/- 6 months with no activity so the threads were folded back into the rest of Otherlit.

Reynolds is popular and prolific but doesn't generate massive thread activity. Asher generates even less.
Stover is fucking awesome, but goes years between books and as much as i love his work, this does not a subforum merit.

All great authors, but not likely enough to generate subforums, plus Morgan at least writes in fantasy too (and currently 'only'), so an SF specific subforum would be inaccurate.

But that;s just my thoughts on the subject - am open to further discussion.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 06 April 2011 - 04:59 PM, said:

Binder of Demons, on 06 April 2011 - 04:40 PM, said:

amphibian, on 06 April 2011 - 04:08 PM, said:

What if we had a Richard Morgan/Alastair Reynolds/one similar author (Stover, Butcher?) sub-forum?

Throw NEAL ASHER in with those 2 and you'd have a good sci-fi sub-forum. Especially since those 3 names seem to come up together so regularly in recommendation threads.

We tried Morgan for a while - the forum went +/- 6 months with no activity so the threads were folded back into the rest of Otherlit.

Reynolds is popular and prolific but doesn't generate massive thread activity. Asher generates even less.
Stover is fucking awesome, but goes years between books and as much as i love his work, this does not a subforum merit.

All great authors, but not likely enough to generate subforums, plus Morgan at least writes in fantasy too (and currently 'only'), so an SF specific subforum would be inaccurate.

But that;s just my thoughts on the subject - am open to further discussion.

It would be nice to discuss with others whether they think all Conjoiners look the same...or how different Demarchists look from regular humans...or what others thoughts are about conjoiner drives, the melding plague ect. I guess we could make a Reynolds discussion thread for that though. I dunno. Seemed like a nice idea to throw a bunch of the bigs in a sub-forum, the list that Brood mentioned seemed good to me.

[stone monkey]

I absolutely loved House of Suns; it's up there with Pushing Ice and Chasm City in my estimation. I also think The Prefect is a very underrated book. And I really can't wait to see what Reynolds does next.

I'm not sure what I can add to the list that's already been given here.

Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams is pretty good. And whilst A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge doesn't quite have the flashing spaceships of traditional space opera, it's still a great read.

[caladanbrood]

So, still enjoying The Prefect - shit is just starting to hit the fan, always a good point of Reynold's books. But I have noticed a couple of pretty stupid errors. At one point, someone had to wait for 290 seconds, and thought to themselves this will be the longest three minutes of my life There have been a few more as well, but that was the one that stood out most.

This post has been edited by caladanbrood: 07 April 2011 - 02:49 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

caladanbrood, on 07 April 2011 - 02:48 PM, said:

At one point, someone had to wait for 290 seconds, and thought to themselves this will be the longest three minutes of my life

I'd argue that five minutes would, in fact, be a long three minutes.

[Use Of Weapons]

Didn't he redefine a minute as a hundred seconds at some point?

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 07 April 2011 - 03:12 PM, said:

caladanbrood, on 07 April 2011 - 02:48 PM, said:

At one point, someone had to wait for 290 seconds, and thought to themselves this will be the longest three minutes of my life

I'd argue that five minutes would, in fact, be a long three minutes.

Chris FTW!

[Binder of Demons]

It's been years since I read it, but if memory serves, SISTER ALICE by Robert Reed is a good mix of way-out-there speculative physics and space opera/adventure.

Reminded me of Greg Bear's EON and ETERNITY in some ways, but more chasing around in space. It's a standalone novel too so you don't have to commit to reading a series. Can't really recommend Robert Reed's other works though, which looked cool on paper but weren't consistently executed (in my opinion).


And since this is a thread about SPACE OPERA i feel someone has to at least mention E.E. "Doc" Smith. I've never read his stuff myself (mainly cos they were a bitch to find in Ireland) but the SKYLARK series, and the LENSMAN series are consistently mentioned when it comes to classic Space Opera. They are probably available in omnibus form now, but I'd be curious to hear how they stack up to more modern space opera (considering he starting writing them back in the 1920's!)

[caladanbrood]

Binder of Demons, on 08 April 2011 - 07:01 AM, said:

And since this is a thread about SPACE OPERA i feel someone has to at least mention E.E. "Doc" Smith. I've never read his stuff myself (mainly cos they were a bitch to find in Ireland) but the SKYLARK series, and the LENSMAN series are consistently mentioned when it comes to classic Space Opera. They are probably available in omnibus form now, but I'd be curious to hear how they stack up to more modern space opera (considering he starting writing them back in the 1920's!)

The Lensman series was good fun - I'm not sure if it's currently in print at all, mind you. I only read one of the Skylark books, but it wasn't as enjoyable. I think he reminds me mostly of Peter F Hamilton from the list of modern authors... but the "future science" they have is pretty damn funny

[Use Of Weapons]

Binder of Demons, on 08 April 2011 - 07:01 AM, said:

It's been years since I read it, but if memory serves, SISTER ALICE by Robert Reed is a good mix of way-out-there speculative physics and space opera/adventure.

Reminded me of Greg Bear's EON and ETERNITY in some ways, but more chasing around in space. It's a standalone novel too so you don't have to commit to reading a series. Can't really recommend Robert Reed's other works though, which looked cool on paper but weren't consistently executed (in my opinion).

Hmm, I'd have said both _Marrow_ and _Down The Bright Way_ were both more satisfying and more accurately describable as Space Opera than _Sister Alice_.

[Binder of Demons]

jitsukerr, on 08 April 2011 - 10:08 AM, said:

Hmm, I'd have said both _Marrow_ and _Down The Bright Way_ were both more satisfying and more accurately describable as Space Opera than _Sister Alice_.

I wouldn't argue the point strongly, but I remember feeling underwhelmed by MARROW (which reminded me of several other books), and while I enjoyed DOWN THE BRIGHT WAY more it doesn't stand out in my mind as one I'd recommend. I really liked the scope of SISTER ALICE, and as a whole I thought it more original than his other stuff.

I'm still kinda vague on what exactly constitutes a "Space Opera", but I think it has enough elements to qualify.

[Pig Iron]

Recommended Lensman series above. Great fun though a bit camp or cheesy sometimes (I dont mind). The original jedi against cosmic scale villains. Wars where planets are used as weapons. And so on.

[Tripps]

I am a masssive Iain M Banks fan and always thought he would remain my favourite sci fi writer until I read Reynolds. I can't say who I like best but Chasm City is probably the book I love the most by any author in any genre. The Prefect I thouroughly enjoyed but nothing in it compels me to read for the 5th time like I have CC. Centuary Rain was all kinds of awesome as well.
The thing with Banks is his Galaxy feels small, Reynold's gives me vertigo!

[stone monkey]

Salt-Man Z, on 07 April 2011 - 03:12 PM, said:

caladanbrood, on 07 April 2011 - 02:48 PM, said:

At one point, someone had to wait for 290 seconds, and thought to themselves this will be the longest three minutes of my life

I'd argue that five minutes would, in fact, be a long three minutes.

I think we're actually talking about Decimal Time here, it's an old concept - dating back to the French Revolution iirc. A lot of sf writers have used it in the past..

[Adjutant Stormy~]

You absolutely MUST ALL read Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series. There are six so far, but they're short, and I read each of them in about a day and a half.

It's a future-set retelling of Xenophon's The Ten Thousand, sort of. In the sense that they're behind enemy lines. And kick ass. But there's so much more.

I think a seventh might be coming too. Holy balls it's good. Excellent relativistic space battles, and while the good guys do spend a lot of time kicking the badguys' teeth in, it's by no means a cakewalk mary sue powergame. Excellent, in all the ways military sci-fi should be.

This post has been edited by adjutant stormy: 08 May 2011 - 11:41 PM

[maro]

amphibian, on 06 April 2011 - 04:08 PM, said:

<br />

caladanbrood, on 06 April 2011 - 09:41 AM, said:

<i>House of Suns</i> is probably my second favourite Reynolds, after <i>Chasm City</i>. Recommend giving it a go as soon as you can.<br /><br />Currently about 100 pages into<i> The Prefect</i>. I had heard some reviews that said it wasn't as good as earlier books, but I am finding it very enjoyable so far!<br />

<br />Looks as though you pretty much dislike the Revelation Space narrative arc. Shame, that.<br /><br />House of Suns was certainly enjoyable and a great read, but I would slot Terminal World over it because it's a bit more accessible. <br />

<br /><br /><br />


I'd hoped there would be a sequel to Terminal World as the world was very interesting - the dead zone cities etc.

Is this not happening?