Space Opera Fans discussion
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What are you READING right now?
Now I'm onto
. This book is a riot. Sure it's not sci-fi, but it's too good not to read.
Just finished
after watching the TV series. Awesome series and the book is even better (as usual). Some of the best world building I've ever read and its so refreshing to read a space opera where space is still a vast inhospitable place that wants to kill you.
Has anyone else continued the Expanse books and enjoyed them? I am just finishing book three, Abaddon's Gate, and was really disappointed. I see book four has lower ratings than book 3.
Heather wrote: "Has anyone else continued the Expanse books and enjoyed them? I am just finishing book three, Abaddon's Gate, and was really disappointed. I see book four has lower ratings than boo..."I really enjoyed the rest of the series. Book 4 (Cibola Burn) is somewhat different than the rest of the series as the entire story takes place on one of the new worlds opened up by the gate. Books 5 and 6 return us to the solar system and action scenes (and characters) I enjoyed in book 2. I did listen to all of these in audiobook form and I think that really helped the enjoyment I got from this series.
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AndrewP wrote: "Just started on Book 5 of the Expanse Nemesis Games"Have fun - it's my favorite book in the series thus far!
Babylon's Ashes is mine. Nemesis Games was a bit of a let down IMHO. It's still one of the best active SF space opera series going on right now I think.
I think I'm just less interested in content that isn't proto-plot. That's why I didn't like book 3 and am concerned about book 4. It sounds like it will track back to content I like on book 5, then.
Just finished reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds and that book really blew me away. When I read a book that I enjoy that much I often find it very hard to get into a new book right away. To combat this I generally reread other books by the same author I have just finished. To that end I am now reading the Revelation Space series once more, it has been quite a long time since I read those books and am really looking forward to getting back into Reynolds excellent universe once more.
Dougalishere wrote: "Just finished reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds and that book really blew me away. When I read a book that I enjoy that much I often find it very hard to get into a new book right away. To..."I too just finished reading House of Suns and thought it was amazing.
@473 Ethan Of Athos is the best! I'm on The Guns Above a steampunk by Robyn Bennis. Last space opera I read was... Star Wars: Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn -- don't be scared that it's a tie in, it's some of the best ever.
I finished Use of Weapons and started Seveneves and I guess I shouldn't have done it so soon after reading Banks. I can't finish Seveneves. I can't. I'm bored to death and I don't like his writing style. I wouldn't call it primitive but expected something more. I'm not a native speaker so maybe I'm not the best judge but Banks reads like poetry. I love his style even if he sometimes bores me with too much detail and takes long to build his story but Stephenson is something else. Apart from the endless technical details (I know, I know,... hard SF) and bland characters, he didn't try very hard to do something more than deliver a story. Is it just me? Am I being too harsh?
Im a Banks fan, and I really didnt like Seveneves. Too slow, dreadfull technobable and a stupid split with ditto end.
I'm in the middle of Book 3 in Robert Jackson Bennett's The Divine Cities trilogy, CITY OF MIRACLES.
Michel wrote: "Im a Banks fan, and I really didnt like Seveneves. Too slow, dreadfull technobable and a stupid split with ditto end."I'm with you. I made it 20-30 pages in and was bored.
Kacenka wrote: "I finished Use of Weapons and started Seveneves and I guess I shouldn't have done it so soon after reading Banks. I can't finish Seveneves. I can't. I'm bored to death and I don't like his writing ..."NO, it was a lousy book.
I had some serious issues with Seveneves, and I keep thinking I should downgrade my rating from 3 stars to 2, but it's kind of like Waterworld in that I love tearing it apart so much that I actually derive a ton of entertainment just from doing that.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished For We Are Many which is the sequel to We Are Legion (We Are Bob). For me it tingled some of the same taste buds as The Martian, but other people might not agree. It's an "engineer figures things out" sort of story, except in this case the protagonist is a software engineer who gets hit by a car and wakes up as defrosted cybernetic intelligence destined to man a deep space probe.
Bill wrote: "Just finished For We Are Many which is the sequel to We Are Legion (We Are Bob). For me it tingled some of the same taste buds as The Martian, but ot..."I read We Are Bob on somewhat of a challenge. A reviewer of mine said my take on human to machine transfers (transhumans) was bush league. I'd never heard the term. I enjoyed aspects of WAB, but overall was not compelled to read WEM. I liked the saving the bat people part, but he totally left that hanging. I liked the early take on transhumans, up until Bob started splitting.
I don't like books where there is a geometric spread of a character. I didn't like how much each copy changed. Most unlikely. I also don't like stories where there is endless possibilities, specifically the Brazilian transhuman out there somewhere, everywhere.
I felt similarly about Martian. It was MacGyver in space without much more to add. I made it not too far into the movie.
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by Alan E. Nourse. I remember reading this book back when I was 11yo and just getting really hooked on SF. Nourse and Norton were adjacent in the school library. The next author I recall at that library was Heinlein.
I just finished a pile of books I had on the go:The Rise of Io by Wesley Chu (lightweight but highly enjoyable read)
Star's End by Cassandra Rose Clarke (a little predictable, but fine)
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (really readable and intriguing, though not as fun as Pratchett's Discworld books)
I'm currently reading
Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey (I'm hooked on the Expanse)
The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley (it has caused me to drop things and bump into the kids on multiple occasions)
and I'm about to start The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber for my local book club, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad for my library's summer adult reading club raffle.
My spouse keeps telling me how amazed he is that I can keep them all straight. Is it weird that I need to have multiple books going at the same time? Does anyone else read this way?
I read a minimum of two at a time. I TRY to keep them separate styles/genres. Typically I do one audio book and one regular/ebook.
I am currently reading the canon Star Wars book Catalyst, a Rogue One novel and Star Wars: Republic Commando Hard Contact!
Here's my in progress pile at the moment:Cibola Burn by James S A Corey
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
Star Wars Bloodline by Claudia Gray
Cibola Burn keeps being put to the side to favour other books, so I need to devote some serious time and attention to it.
Reading Falling Free right now. I'd never read Lois McMaster Bujold before this year and I'm enjoying reading this series very much.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Audio CD), Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee and Shike: The Last zinja by Robert Shea.
I just finished The Destroyer 1 & 2 by Michael Scott Earle and loved this future magical fantasy series. I want to read #3 but it is still priced too high even on Kindle so I must wait for a while. Still execellent reads.
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which is next in the internal chronology of the Liaden Universe. On to number four: Trade Secret
.
Finished Crystal Soldier. Now I am reading The Little Ships. After that, back to the Liaden Universe with Crystal Dragon
Audrey wrote: "Finished Crystal Soldier. Now I am reading The Little Ships. After that, back to the Liaden Universe with Crystal Dragon"Have just begun Crystal Soldier. This will be the first book in this universe for me. So far, I'm a little on the fence, but it's slowly sucking me in.
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which was just released today, in the Liaden Universe. Not a novel, but yummy!
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JuniperGreen wrote: "Reading Aurora. I struggled with the first part, but now it's quite fascinating."I liked Aurora trilogy. I wish it went on.
Just some random thoughts.I'd asked for recommendations from the group.
I'm struggling through The Three Body Problem. It started out okay, kind of literary, as opposed to scifi. But the video game part is becoming annoying and the choppy timelines are breaking my interest. Not sure I'll finish.
I finished Falling Free by Bujold. It was dated but okay. A bit soap opera more than space opera. I will tackle book 2 soon.
I see a lot of discussion about Liaden Universe. I'm always suspicious of mega-series. They can be commercially written, not creatively so. I did download Agent of Change, so I'll at least check the universe out.
I bailed on Awakened: Age Of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Ascension Myth Book 1 very early. The main character is a loner girl who drugged an acquaintance into having violent sex with her. Huh? Can you say Bill Cosby? No thanks.
We Are Bob was okay, but superficially plotted and written. I didn't give him a pass on the non-treatment of the huge time gaps such travel involved.
I can't remember the last "new" scifi book I've read. Color me frustrated.
Surprised that you're not into THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM. I agree the video game is the weakest part of the book but I loved The Cultural Revolution stuff plus the explanation for the wild phenomena that happen to the main character.As for the Liaden series I tried the first book and bailed on it in the first 100 pages. Too bad because people do seem to like them.
Have you read any of THE EXPANSE by James S.A. Corey?
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Getting back on topic for this thread, I'm currently rereading fantasy books such as Madness in Solidar because the newest one in that series is due out next week.
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Space Opera Fans
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I have higher hopes t..."
I'll admit it is entertaining to a point. Scalzi has a way with writing that is super easy to read, but if I had bought the book (rather than getting from the library) I would be quite annoyed. I just found a lack of character and world building that left me not able to empathize with anything going on.