[Tiste Simeon]

Has anyone read Blindsight by Peter Watts? Was recommended as an epic Sci-Fi book on a thread in Reddit and you can get the free ebook version here. Just wondering if it is worth doing?

This post has been edited by Tisteon Simeonus: 14 June 2014 - 10:17 AM

[Baco Xtath]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 14 June 2014 - 10:17 AM, said:

Has anyone read Blindsight by Peter Watts? Was recommended as an epic Sci-Fi book on a thread in Reddit and you can get the free ebook version here. Just wondering if it is worth doing?

That's a big "hell yes!" That book is awesome. As are the Rifter books on that same site.

This post has been edited by Baco Xtath: 14 June 2014 - 12:24 PM

[HiddenOne]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 14 June 2014 - 10:17 AM, said:

Has anyone read Blindsight by Peter Watts? Was recommended as an epic Sci-Fi book on a thread in Reddit and you can get the free ebook version here. Just wondering if it is worth doing?

so far the first 35 pages are good, I'd say go for it

[firvulag]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 14 June 2014 - 10:17 AM, said:

Has anyone read Blindsight by Peter Watts? Was recommended as an epic Sci-Fi book on a thread in Reddit and you can get the free ebook version here. Just wondering if it is worth doing?

While I wasn't blown away by it I certainly enjoyed it. It raised questions I hadn't considered before. I know Peter Watts is doing a sequel exploring things on Earth while the main story in the first book is taking place.

[firvulag]

Just finished reading The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. While I can appreciate the quality of the writing, I can't say I was that fussed on it. I enjoyed it enough to keep reading to the end, but ultimately I thought it was meh. I've not read any Neal Stephenson before and not sure if I'll bother with other stuff in future.

Currently reading Prince of Thorns and absolutely loving it, pretty grim so far :S

[Baco Xtath]

Finished Fortune's Pawn; I thought it was really good. It did have some romance to it I could have done without but it wasn't near as much as I'd been led to believe by the Amazon reviews. I'll definitely be buying the sequel, Honor's Knight, when my new credits come. I'd recommend these to anyone that enjoys space mercenaries or the Expanse series.

Now starting the Drowned Cities.

[Coco with marshmallows]

firvulag, on 14 June 2014 - 01:04 PM, said:

Just finished reading The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. While I can appreciate the quality of the writing, I can't say I was that fussed on it. I enjoyed it enough to keep reading to the end, but ultimately I thought it was meh. I've not read any Neal Stephenson before and not sure if I'll bother with other stuff in future.

If you have any interest in historical fiction, AT ALL, i recommend his Baroque cycle.

[HiddenOne]

HiddenOne, on 14 June 2014 - 12:39 PM, said:

Tisteon Simeonus, on 14 June 2014 - 10:17 AM, said:

Has anyone read Blindsight by Peter Watts? Was recommended as an epic Sci-Fi book on a thread in Reddit and you can get the free ebook version here. Just wondering if it is worth doing?

so far the first 35 pages are good, I'd say go for it

I've read about 170 pages now, so thanks for leading me to a book you haven't even read! Have rep next time I'm at a PC

[Tiste Simeon]

You're... Welcome? think I should read it myself after that!

[Abyss]

HiddenOne, on 14 June 2014 - 09:12 PM, said:

HiddenOne, on 14 June 2014 - 12:39 PM, said:

Tisteon Simeonus, on 14 June 2014 - 10:17 AM, said:

Has anyone read Blindsight by Peter Watts? Was recommended as an epic Sci-Fi book on a thread in Reddit and you can get the free ebook version here. Just wondering if it is worth doing?

so far the first 35 pages are good, I'd say go for it

I've read about 170 pages now, so thanks for leading me to a book you haven't even read! Have rep next time I'm at a PC

Tisteon Simeonus, on 15 June 2014 - 12:00 AM, said:

You're... Welcome? think I should read it myself after that!

You should. It's brilliant.

[Ukjent]

In the last weeks I have read:
Deadhouse gates, I didn't fell a tear this time.
Skin Game, way to short.
Ark Royal - Christopher Nuttall
The Nelson Touch - Christopher Nuttall

And right now I'm doing a reread of The Name of the Wind.

[QuickTidal]

Of the vacation reads I took on my kindle, I only finished SKIN GAME (comments in ded thread), got about halfway throughn Vandermeer's AUTHORITY on the flight home (more goodness)...but the biggest disappoinment to me is going to have to be the book with all the potential and none of the payoff.

THE BARROW by Mark Smylie.

Touted as Erikson meets Abercrombie meets GRRM...

I can see how it REALLY wants to be all those things, but the ONLY thing that comes close is the worldbuilding, which is Erikson-ish with a whole language of words, phrases, sets of gods ect. that you are just thrown into...BUT the rest falls incredibly flat.

I got halfway through.

There are three leads. A gang leader dude who's kind of a spanish rogue, a young long-haired blonde noble who's playing in the dirt with the criminality, and the third if a female fighter who is skinny enough and boyish enough to pass for a man (apparently on purpose).

The thing that immeidately jumps out here is the sexuality. Now I am no prude when it come to erotic stuff in my books...but within two chapters of this book I encountered the tomb of a cult-worshipped god upon whose golden idol giant rigid golden penis women and men are sacrificed....errr...in exactly the way you'd think they were in that sick situation....so that was discomforting, and a few pages later there is a main character who delights in sexual proclivities that would make the Marquis De Sade blush, and they go on for a few pages about a ritual that is wprse than the cult one.

Then there is the female main character. Whose internal monologue consists of wanting a threesome with the other two leads at any interval when she's not fighting...and then the next few male characters she meets she wants to do stuff with to (married or not) as well (always with the rough stuff in mind). I'm not sure what her character trajectory is meant to be but I could not stomach something so "male wish fullfillment" as this appeared to be.

so amongst all this, is the story at least entertaining? Eh...the main through story was a treasure hutning one...and to be honest has been done better elsewhere.

Not reccomneded. You might like it, but I certainly didn't.

I'm probably going to start FIRST MAN IN ROME by McCullough next since I just returned from seeing Ancient Roman places like the Colliseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Epheseus, and Pompeii (best ancient site we visited!).

[polishgenius]

Totally with you on The Barrow (except you made it further than me). If the sexuality had been less nasty or not present, I might have got into it, but the story just isn't good or well-written enough to pull me past it (unlike, say, Bakker - though in some ways it was even more urgh than Bakker just because of the glee with which it approached the icky stuff).



Currently reading Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone, and enjoying it immensely. It's about magical lawyers trying to resurrect a dead god, and somehow this is awesome.

[QuickTidal]

REVISED: Started KILLER OF MEN by Christian Cameron (instead of Mcullough's FIRST MAN), as I read the sample on my Kindle and like the idea of a series set before and leading up to the ancient battle of Marathon.

[Stalker]

If you end up liking that, QT, you should check out his fantasy work as Miles Cameron. The Red Knight and the following volume were both great and seemed to be a fairly accurate depiction of medieval combat, camp life of a mercenary company, and lifestyle. The author is a big reenactor and history buff so it makes sense that his works are accurate.


I'm reading Malice by John Gwynne. Only about fifteen chapters in and it seems promising, though I don't like the habit of ending a chapter on something interesting and then switching POV, which I've noticed several times now. Not a huge issue but it doesn't seem like good storytelling to me.

[Morgoth]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 14 June 2014 - 10:17 AM, said:

Has anyone read Blindsight by Peter Watts? Was recommended as an epic Sci-Fi book on a thread in Reddit and you can get the free ebook version here. Just wondering if it is worth doing?

Not having read Blindsight is a serious character flaw.

[End of Disc One]

Started The Warrior Prophet, book 2 of The Prince of Nothing series. So far, like the first book, this is just excellent. I can tell that like Malazan, ASoIaF, and WoT, this is one of the big epic series. More time and thought went into planning these series than most other ones, it seems. Looking forward to reading more.

[Inane Babble]

I thought Blindsight started off really well, and it raised a lot of interesting questions and explored them for a while, but I felt towards the end it lost a lot of momentum and almost fizzled out. Still well worth reading for the ideas it will spawn in your brain alone.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Slowly rereading Hyperion (not a lot of time during the morning commute).

Having caught up a bit with this thread, is it worth my while to pick up a copy of Vellum? Intrigued by it but can't tell whether I'll enjoy it or not...

[polishgenius]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 16 June 2014 - 02:32 PM, said:

Having caught up a bit with this thread, is it worth my while to pick up a copy of Vellum? Intrigued by it but can't tell whether I'll enjoy it or not...

The only way to know is to try... for my part, I found it one of the best books I've ever read, absolute genius. It takes some effort and indeed a reread, but it's very rewarding.