Fast-paced Sci-fi recommendation?

[Joseph]

Trike wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Michael Crichton's The Terminal Man and The Andromeda Strain. Interestingly, my library lists both as Fiction, not Science Fiction. A lesson in that, me thinks."

The lesson being they don't want the stink of genre fiction on them."

Trike, that may be the case, I don't know. The lesson to me was to not limit my thinking, to not pigeonhole myself.

[Trike]

Sure. But also, dat sci-fi stank.

[J.W.]

I don't get the notion with non sci-fi readers that somehow "fiction" or "literature" is somehow superior. Also I have seen some trends with sci-fi readers to value "literary sci-fi" more highly than other sci-fi. It doesn't make much sense to me.

[Trike]

It's snobbery. It's so ingrained that even longtime Science Fiction writers like Margaret Atwood bend over backwards trying to escape the label. It's only recently that she's grudgingly come around to allowing that maybe, kinda-sorta, if-you-squint-and-hold-your-nose, her work might be a form of SF and that there's some merit to that "Buck Rogers stuff." (Her characterization.)

I was watching a YouTube discussion about Lord of the Rings and one of the literature professors talking about the books related how his colleagues routinely dismissed it as not worthy of study. He was marveling at the sheer pretentiousness of that attitude, and how his fellow teachers would take umbrage if he did the same to books like War and Peace.

[Sarah]

I value literary writing more highly and it ain't snobbery. It's simply a matter of preference. Thinking it's "superior" or "better" is arrogant because it would mean that my taste is "right." In my case I prefer it because I have to work harder and it's more rewarding for me.

It's sort of like how people say that having to work for the story in Gardens of the Moon is what makes it so great. I think it's just poorly written but there are plenty of people who find the challenge very rewarding.

Different strokes.

[Lexxi Kitty]

I'm lazy, I prefer not having to work hard at figuring out what's going on in a book to be able to enjoy books.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I like books. But only the ones I like. The other ones I like less. Some I even dislike!

You can't set me up like that, y'all.

I think there's been a lot of shifts. For example, it just dawned on me that a lot of people consider utopia/dystopia books science fiction, which was a big "aha!" moment. I think I am not alone in considering these books their own subgenre first. So, it'd make sense that Atwood didn't see herself as science fiction. It felt nothing like the things I was positive were science fiction. Humanities fiction maybe?

And now that vidya games and apps have turned everyone into a casual gamer, more people want to know what other cool things nerds have been hoarding all these years. Our secret is out! If you see the "what book got you started" thread, a lot of people came in via GoT. Winter is coming, and the blurring of lines between genre fiction and the more praised genres is coming with it.

[Sarah]

Lexxi Kitty wrote: "I'm lazy, I prefer not having to work hard at figuring out what's going on in a book to be able to enjoy books."

This is how I am with Audiobooks.

[Joseph]

(I feel like Rosa Parks here. "All I was doing was trying to get home from work." All I was doing was sharing what I thought were good fast-paced sci-fi reads.)

I'm with J.w., Sarah Anne and Allison on this. I don't care what the genre is, I want a good read.

Sarah Anne, Bless you! "I prefer it because I have to work harder and it's more rewarding for me." I'm considering putting up a blog post entitled "Why I don't read in my genres anymore", my main reason is that the stories don't challenge me. The storycrafting ranges from suck to study-worthy and I'll dog my way through a boring story if I can learn something from the writing.

Is Cormac McCarthy's The Road science-fiction? fantasy? Or just a good (if agonizing) read? Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is...what? Aside from superb writing, what is it? Certainly her MaddAddam series is...what? Aside from superb writing, I mean. Note: I found the actual story a little dull but the writing was incredible.

Allison nailed it for me; "I like books. But only the ones I like. The other ones I like less. Some I even dislike!" Aye aye! Did Vonnegut set out to write sci-fi when he penned Galapagos? Slaughterhouse Five? Or was his concern to tell a good story?

Give me a good story and I won't care what genre it is. I mentioned my working on a blog post above, two lines from which describe what I look for in a good read - "...caught my interest, made me pay attention, held my focus, engaged me, made me care, made me want more, worked on me like a deep body massage and left me spent and numb and vulnerable.
"Okay, first part - not everybody wants that from a story. I do. Sue me."

(all of which reminds me to add books by Atwood, Vonnegut and others to my lists/shelves just to watch the suggestion algorithms go nuts)

[Lexxi Kitty]

Is Cormac McCarthy's The Road science-fiction? fantasy? Or just a good (if agonizing) read? Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is...what? Aside from superb writing, what is it? Certainly her MaddAddam series is...what? Aside from superb writing, I mean. Note: I found the actual story a little dull but the writing was incredible.

The Road is 'post apocalyptic', or at least that's what's in the book description. And that genre is normally placed within Science Fiction.

Handmaid's Tale is set in a 'near dystopian future society'. Dystopian stories normally get placed within Science Fiction. Though Atwood disagreed.

[Sarah]

On the subject of fast-paced sci-fi, Pushing Ice is winning our polls for next month. That book had me on the edge of my seat from around 33%. Absolutely fantastic book.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm sorry you were afraid we might imprison or kill you for this comment! I assure you neither is true, even if we had that authority. I think you'll find rhetorical questions often get answered in these threads, even if the rhetoric is just implied. ;-)

I think you would enjoy reading/responding to the conversation we had (are having? I'm not sure how tenses work with static posts) about the difference between science fiction and fantasy, Joseph. We've battled this well, though I'm not sure we've moved the front forward in either direction.

Did I already say I think The Collapsing Empire needs to be on this list? Super quick, fun, tense read in a pretty space shell.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Sarah Anne wrote: "On the subject of fast-paced sci-fi, Pushing Ice is winning our polls for next month. That book had me on the edge of my seat from around 33%. Absolutely fantastic book."

I just moved up Pusheen Eyes on my list to join everyone! Looking forward to it!

[Joseph]

Just ordered Putin's Nice...no, wait, that can't be correct...Ah, Pushing Ice, that's it... from the library.

[Mary]

One hopes it's pure snobbery. Some of them make it clear that it's because they considered the seriousness of a work to be directly related to how close the subject matter is to them, and therefore SF or fantasy count only insofar as the works are secretly really about them.

[Trike]

Writers, publishers and editors have been quite open over the years about how they've deliberately avoided the labels of "Fantasy" and "Science Fiction" (and, to a lesser extent, "Western") because those types of books rarely used to make the best seller list or garnered the biggest writing awards.

And this was an actual prejudice. LotR actually outsold many other books on the NYT bestseller chart, but they wouldn't include it because it wasn't "literature." For a chart that is supposedly just about hard numbers, there is an awful lot of politicking and behind the scenes shenanigans used to game the list. More recently, Hugh Howey's Dust significantly outsold other books during its first few weeks of release, which we know because of the sales tracking on both Amazon and BookScan, but it only hit #7 on the NYT list, because someone at the Times didn't think it was worthy of the number one spot.

But in defense of the NYTimes, there are also forces at work on the other side who are also trying to game the system. There are companies one can hire to buy books in bulk simply to artificially pump up the sales numbers, and there are organizations which command their members to buy specific books in order to make the sales but also to garner new recruits. Not surprisingly, these tend to be religious and/or political groups, like the Scientologists, who used this method to get Hubbard's various books on the bestseller lists.

Anne McCaffrey and Frank Herbert famously got into an argument at a joint book signing about which one of them was the first to get a book labeled "Science Fiction" on the NYT bestseller list. Someone in line asked why that was such a big deal and McCaffrey snapped, "It's about honesty and representation!" Fighting the "stigma" of SFF was part of the subculture at that time, and it was only the cross-cultural shake-up of the old rules happening in the 60s that allowed the New York Times to grudgingly admit this very popular genre existed. Soon after The Lord of he Rings started being acknowledged as a bestseller, equal in popularity to "real literature."

[Joseph]

Allison wrote: "I think you would enjoy reading/responding to the conversation we had (are having? I'm not sure how tenses work with static posts) about the difference between science fiction and fantasy, Joseph. We've battled this well, though I'm not sure we've moved the front forward in either direction...."

Could you give me a pointer to that discussion, please? I couldn't find it. Not sure how to look for such things (also a problem). Thankee.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Oh! Thanks for reminding me. I meant to post it and never did. Let me fix that!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and also

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
:-)

[Joseph]

Allison wrote: "Oh! Thanks for reminding me. I meant to post it and never did. Let me fix that!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and also

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/s..."

Thankee!

[E.J.]

Brent wrote: "Over the years I've become impatient when it comes to books but can't get enough Sci-fi movies.

Can anyone recommend a FAST PACED sci-fi book? Ideally something with some humor, maybe a romp acro..."

Brent, try The Hyperspace Project The Hyperscape Project -Book One

Definitely fast paced, lots of action an fun.

[Joseph]

Joseph wrote: "(I feel like Rosa Parks here. "All I was doing was trying to get home from work." All I was doing was sharing what I thought were good fast-paced sci-fi reads.)

I'm with J.w., Sarah Anne and Allis..."

I decided to tackle this full on - Why I don't read in my genres any more