SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
Recommendations and Lost Books
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Kingdom building/space opera
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I've not read it yet so I dunno, bur recently recommended to me along these lines is Scott Westerfeld's Succession duology.If someone recommends Asimov's Foundation to you, ignore them. No aliens, very little technology, at least in the first book of the original trilogy, and very boring. (Asimov is great, Foundation not so much.)
Cheryl wrote: "I've not read it yet so I dunno, bur recently recommended to me along these lines is Scott Westerfeld's Succession duology.If someone recommends Asimov's Foundation t..."
Sounds about right, thanks.
Anyone else?
Warship by Joshua Dalzelle. There''s two more books in the series plus a follow up series. Got a focus on a splintered human space nation throughout space. Great battles. Politics. Yes suits exactly what you say. And aliens :)Check out Warship's description. I will say though the first book focuses on a localized battle. The second goes deeper into the politics and human's splintered relationships with the different enclaves on the frontier.
Man of War series, definitely. Aliens, politics, space battles...
Evan Currie Oddessey one series. Gets better with every book. Because the first book is very old from when he started writing pre 2010. His more recent books in the series continued it in grand fashion.
J. wrote: "Warship by Joshua Dalzelle. There''s two more books in the series plus a follow up series. Got a focus on a splintered human space nation throughout space. Great battles. Politics. Yes suits exactl..."Thanks, though I'm doubtful of Oddessey being part military I'll give it a try and see if the crew is likeable like in Star Trek or it's just mindless non stop action.
Trike wrote: "Alan Dean Foster's The Man Who Used the Universe mostly checks all those boxes."Thanks, added to my list.
I know you said you didn't like Safehold because it's slow and long and kinda dry (especially books 3-5) but I do recommend you give Weber another shot with either.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
or
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Which yes despite being #3 that's standalone and the one you should read.
For the empire builder/space opera, that's newer
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Try the whole book, I almost dropped it on the first 100 pages or so when it was a bit more boring but it just keeps picking up and the series has been great.
Renegade by Joel Shepard
No idea when we are getting book 4 but this series starts off with a bang and features a lot of politics and quick growth.
Ember War series by Eric Fox
It's kinda trashy but my mind keeps sliding back to it as it did a lot of neat things and had good characters. It prominently features the rapid advancement of humanity from now into the space age as we try to survive *insert evil alien threat*
Partial support for the Man of War series, I loved it but it's not really what you are looking for I think.
Sadly the rapid industrialization genre is mostly more amateur works and/or they drive off a cliff at some point. RIP Ring of Fire series
I guess you can try Log Horizon, and the new Age of Myth/Age of Swords series is good and has humans trying to rapidly learn tech to fight the Elves trying to genocide them.
Astral wrote: "Release that Witch"
*hi fives*
Boy am I glad Seki is doing a decent job translating this since Volare started stalling out. Meanwhile Qidian blazes past with barely edited machine translations...as the official license holders *slams head into wall
Aaron wrote: "I know you said you didn't like Safehold because it's slow and long and kinda dry (especially books 3-5) but I do recommend you give Weber another shot with either.https://www.goodreads.com/book/..."
Alright, I'll try Webber's other books, at least he has the right idea!
I have watched Log Horizon, shame it ended up more filler like then plot-serious. Funny thing about RtW is that church chapters were also boring same as in Webber's.
Astral wrote: "Aaron wrote: "I know you said you didn't like Safehold because it's slow and long and kinda dry (especially books 3-5) but I do recommend you give Weber another shot with either.https://www.goodr..."
Hey Church chapters>>>Play chapters in RtW at least. But that's mostly because I like most of the church characters :shrug:. The ones in Safehold got old mostly because Zhasphar was not an interesting antagonist long term.
Weber does a really good job of world building. I do agree that the safehold series drags a little.
D. wrote: "Weber does a really good job of world building. I do agree that the safehold series drags a little."Also, WWII was a minor inconvenience, Jupiter is slightly overlarge, and bricks are a bit less comfortable than pillows. :p
Whatever your opinion on the Safehold series is, David Weber at least gets some credit for writing a satisfying (if somewhat rushed) conclusion to this arc of the series. Hopefully the next group of books will bring the confrontation with the Gbaba that I have been looking forward to since book 1.
I think Safehold started off great but then got bogged down. While Weber has said that they eventually meet the Gbaba again, he has also said that Safehold is done. Combining that with his health problems and challenges faced by his wife, I don't know that I'd bet he will continue with the next phase of Safehold.
Trike wrote: "I think Safehold started off great but then got bogged down. While Weber has said that they eventually meet the Gbaba again, he has also said that Safehold is done. Combining that with his health..."
I had heard that too but this is from his website.
>>Next project: the new Safehold book, starting 20-25 years after At the Sign of Triumph (with the discovery of the Lost Testament of Schueler). Projected delivery date, end of November. Publication date, probably second half of 2018.<<
Trike wrote: "I think Safehold started off great but then got bogged down. While Weber has said that they eventually meet the Gbaba again, he has also said that Safehold is done. Combining that with his health..."
I actually sorta blame the editor for not reigning in Weber harder on that series it just feels like Weber has hit the point of whatever it will sell lets just do some line editing and be done.
Aaron wrote: "I actually sorta blame the editor for not reigning in Weber harder on that series it just feels like Weber has hit the point of whatever it will sell lets just do some line editing and be done. "I agree. That seems to happen to a lot of bestselling authors, like Stephen King and George R.R. Martin; their editors stopped saying "no" and just let them do their thing, when reining them in is what made them popular in the first place.
In Weber's case, his output jumped significantly once he switched over to Dragon Naturally Speaking, the dictation program he uses. So he no longer had the limitation of hand pain forcing him to pick and choose what he'd spend his time on. Which certainly has its benefits, especially when it comes to his making a living, so I'm not knocking it, but I do think that restrictions make for better art.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Man Who Used the Universe (other topics)The Man Who Used the Universe (other topics)
Succession (other topics)
Succession (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Scott Westerfeld (other topics)Scott Westerfeld (other topics)
Another kind would be starting from medieval age with rapid industrialisation, like Release that Witch, yeah I know, that's a bad title but the read is quite good. What I don't want is Safehold from D.W. because of needlesly complicated names, and it's kinda boring, especially the church parts, or Star Force where there is non stop combat.