Books I would like to see reviewed

[Joanne]

Hello!! I would love to see Legend Land by Noah Barfield reviewed. It's his first book and he's 18 years old! I think you'll love it. https://www.indigoriverpublishing.com...

[Lily]

Would Luke please kindly review Coding Lina by Sean Cahill. I'm interested to see what he thinks of it. The book is a thriller about artificial intelligence and was written by a software engineer whom I actually know. I'm biased but I think the book is a great change of pace in the sci-fi genre.

[Loweren]

Luke's review of "Lady Astronaut" lists a number of expectations Luke has when starting a book, and I would agree that it's disappointing when what you constructed inside your head can be more interesting and reasonable than the actual plot. For me, the most disappointing genre would be the superhero fiction. There's so much more that superpowers can bring to the world, and to the characters, than generic "fight the boss" plot the blockbuster movies offer us.

That's why I was ecstatic when I started to read web novel "Worm" by Wildbow - it hooked me with unconventinal and creative powers, detailed world with multiple POV, and themes of trauma, authority vs. righteousness, and utilitarian ethics. It has a similar urban fantasy "vibe" to it as "Night Watch" that Luke reviewed. As for the intro blurb, you can find it in the link below.

Links:
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Novel https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
Audiobook http://audioworm.rein-online.org/

[Ryan]

Luke, you should definitely check out Vita Nostra, by the Dyachenkos. Urban fantasy, but in an allegorical, Black Mirror sort of way. I read their other book, The Scar, on your recommendation a few years ago, and a translation of this one only recently came out on audible.

[Roland]

Regarding superhero books, I very much liked “Steelheart” by Brandon Sanderson.

It is an interesting twist to the whole superhero theme altogether and perhaps one that is much closer to reality if hypothetically such thing as a superhero powers were possible...

[Zivan]

I've just finished Gnomon, I think you will enjoy the complexity of this novel.

[Ryan]

His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem. Very cerebral first contact story, on the same level as Solaris (which you reviewed a few years back). Scientists convene in late 1960s to try to make sense of a signal emanating from another star system. What they find leaves them with more questions than answers. Not a very "exciting" book in the usual sense, but I really enjoyed the intellectual explorations. It's not very long.

[Zivan]

With an eye to the upcoming Eurovision contest, you may want to check out Space Opera.

[Micah]

I'd like to see what you think of Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It's an African epic fantasy currently considered one of the best books of 2019, in any genre. And the audiobook is amazing.

[Ryan]

I thought Black Leopard, Red Wolf was excellent, including the audiobook performance. However, it's one of those novels without a whole lot of hand-holding and I can definitely see why a lot of readers found it frustrating. I was often a little confused myself.

[Micah]

Yeah, it wasn't easy, especially at the beginning when I was kinda... Learning how to read it. But once it clicked it was amazing.

[Lindsay]

Luke, I think you would really enjoy A Memory Called Empire. It's available as an audio. It reminded me strongly of Foreigner and Ancillary Justice (probably not quite as good as the latter though).

[Colin]

Do you plan to read Children of Ruin? I read (and loved) Children of Time after your review of that one and will be giving the sequel a listen sometime soon.

[Lindsay]

Children of Ruin was very good. I liked it as much as the first book.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Condomnauts by Yoss

I just finished it and would be interested in your views on it.

Translated into English, Cuban writer....

[Mark]

Something Coming Through by Paul McAuley
I've read a few Paul McAuley books which have been pretty good, but this one was great.
Fantastic world building, I loved the elder culture stuff.
Also - the Jackaroo were an interesting take on aliens.
Really sneaky and foreboding.
The characters had reasonably complete back stories and I enjoyed their human frailties.
Paul on to a winner here and apparently there is a sequel.

[Gregg]

I think you might like Recursion, which reminds me of Minding Tomorrow as there is a form of time travel that leads to recurring events with a twist that rapidly grow out of hand. I've been impressed with other Blake Crouch novels, and they've shown up on the free audiobook account associated with my public library.

[Ryan]

Gregg's post above prompted a thought: I can't remember if I ever mentioned Version Control by Dexter Palmer, but I think you (Luke) would enjoy it, and probably Juliana, too. It's one of those what-if-we-could-change-the-past-and-make-a-new-timeline stories, but it's very cleverly done and written with a lot of wit, IMO. Also, come to think of it, Arcadia by Ian Pears is another book that does clever things with timelines. It's not the most heavyweight story in terms of its science fiction ideas, but I thought it was a lot of fun.

Also, now that I've finished Ian McDonald's Luna: New Moon trilogy, I'd recommend that one, too. It's sort of Game of Thrones meets Dynasty meets William Gibson set on the moon a century from now, but the first book is fantastic. I'd give a weaker thumbs-up to the two following books, but that's just my opinion -- they have their fans.

[Ryan]

Since you liked Under the Skin, you might like another of Faber's novels, The Book of Strange New Things, which is about a Christian missionary to the alien beings on a planet that the powers-that-be on Earth are in the process of turning into a colony (because Earth is environmentally screwed). There were aspects of the book that I had issues with, but I found the story intriguing. And my issues might not be your issues.

[Paul]

Ryan wrote: "Since you liked Under the Skin, you might like another of Faber's novels, The Book of Strange New Things, which is about a Christian missionary to the alien beings on a planet that the powers-that-..."

Yes I'd love to hear Luke (and Juliane) review this, especially considering Luke's Christian upbringing.

[Sarah]

I would like to see reviews for "Invitation to the Game" (neat twist and philosophy) as well as "Apex Five" (epic far-future science fantasy, been compared to "Dune").

[Sean]

Otherside Picnic by Iori Miyazawa.

A socially withdrawn college girl whose hobby is exploring abandoned buildings finds a door to an alternate universe populated by creatures that seem to be out of urban legends ... except maybe they're aliens who are trying to communicate?

She bumps into another woman who's looking for a friend who got lost in the Otherside, and they team up to explore the world. They earn money by finding strange artifacts and selling them to a mysterious researcher who's too afraid to enter the Otherside herself.

And yes, the book owes a lot to Roadside Picnic, though the world of the Otherside is more horrific. It's the sort of place where reality itself breaks down, and notions of self and consciousness have no meaning.

[Allen]

Almost done listening to the Stone Man by Luke Smitherd (on Audible). I had never heard of the author before, but Audible had a special deal on the book for $5 so I took a gamble.

I am really enjoying the book, it is a great Science Fiction story. I have always enjoyed stories where the author takes the current world and adds one new thing, then follows it to see how the world reacts and deals with the new situation. In this case suddenly an eight foot tall statue made from what appears to be stone suddenly appears in middle of Coventry, England. It then starts walking and nothing can stop it.

I think even Luke would like this one.

[Ryan]

The Quantum Garden! You really liked the first book iirc.

[Ryan]

After Atlas by Emma Newman. It's the second book in her Planetfall series but the first three can be read in any order as they're essentially standalone novels in the same universe.

It's the fourth book in the series, Atlas Alone that I think you'd truly enjoy but it's better if you read After Atlas first.
__________

Edit:

Also, Have you read Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber?

[Luke]

It's very easy to report and delete spam/self-promotional posts to this group.

[Sean]

After listening to the Odyssey episode, I think Luke should try Lucian of Samosata's A True History, which is a satire of ancient travel literature, including some digs at the Odyssey. It's one of those books that's often cited as The First Science Fiction Story due to a sequence in which the narrator travels to the moon and witnesses a space battle. More pertinent to Luke's interests, though, is a lengthy parody of the story of Jonah where the narrator gets swallowed by a whale and finds whole civilizations of shipwrecked sailors living in its belly.

[Hollowman]

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. Seem very apropos for the time of the corona pandemic!
Or maybe Luke can do a special epi on pandemic sci-fi. Earth Abides, etc.

[Anton]

Some reflection that goes beyond the mere moment doesn't hurt.
I recommend Wanderers by Chuck Wending. Very timely and mind- bending, though it does have some lengths.

[Amy]

Thea wrote: "Do we really need more reading about pandemics?"

Maybe, but it depends on the reader. Science fiction is always been good possibility and a book about people creating a better world out of crisis could be just the ticket. "Society falls apart in the face of the zombie apocalypse" not so much.

Coincidentally I reviewed Nicola Griffith's Ammonite in February and now it seems very timely.

[Anton]

Sci-fi Books about living in confined spaces or self-sustaining small worlds would also be a good topic, "The World Inside" by Robert Silverberg or generation ship stories such as the already reviewed "Aurora" by Kim Stanley Robinson come to mind.

I don't think we should try to escape the current situation completely, this is (hopefully) a unique time in our lives that we should consciously take in from all perspectives.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Thea wrote: "Books that give us hope can be good too. I recently read Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley and found it oddly comforting: no matter how punishing the circumstances, there can still be hope. I enjoyed..."

I recently read that one too. Did you see she got nominated for a Hugo Award?

[Lindsay]

Well deserved too.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Thea wrote: "Agreed. Hi Jenny, enjoy your podcast. Maybe you could recommend some books for reading now?"

Did you read the Becky Chambers books? They are so feel-good if you aren't bothered by nothing much happening. I also recently loved Gideon the Ninth, which I'd recommend to people who don't even like fantasy because of all the other fun parts. Another book I enjoyed (don't even compare the tv show adaptation, book is better) that would be immersive and nothing about viruses is The Rook.

Maybe the opposite of pandemic are the space anthropology novels, like Embassytown, The Best of All Possible Worlds, Sleeping Giants, and The Left Hand of Darkness.

Something that always cheers me up is women re-creating a world in various ways, so Parable of the Sower, Who Fears Death, Palimpsest...

[Hollowman]

Just heard Richard Dawkins endorse this book/author:

Simulacron-3

Simulacron-3 (1964) (also published as Counterfeit World), by Daniel F. Galouye, is an American science fiction novel featuring an early literary description of a simulated reality.

[Anton]

Interesting, had this on my list for a while now, I'll give it a try.

Return From the Stars (1961) by Stanislaw Lem also has some virtual reality bits and feels surprisingly modern in some parts.

[Hollowman]

The Black Cloud {1959 ] by Fred Hoyle
"A 1959 classic 'hard' science-fiction novel by renowned Cambridge astronomer and cosmologist Fred Hoyle. Tracks the progress of a giant black cloud that comes towards Earth and sits in front of the sun, causing widespread panic and death."

[Ryan]

Luke, someone in an earlier post recommended The Stone Man, and I second their recommendation, now that I've listened to it. I think you and Juliana would like it: inventive story, intelligent writing, an enjoyably flawed protagonist, and enough material in the story to generate a good discussion from. IMO, anyway.

[Ryan]

I'd like you to review the novella The Test by Sylvain Neuvel. You didn't like his book Sleeping Giants, but The Test is different in tone and potentially a good catalyst for discussion with Julianna.

I recommend reading Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber as I suspect that you'll enjoy it.

The Stories of Ibis by Hiroshi Yamamoto and The Next Continent by Issui Ogawa are my suggestions for books to review on SFBRP if you fancy some Japanese science fiction.

[Lindsay]

I enjoyed your episodes on The Light Brigade which is nominated for a Hugo this year (and in my opinion is the best of a pretty good ballot). Also nominated is A Memory Called Empire which I think you liked as well.

The other two on the list which I think have a good chance of winning are Gideon the Ninth and The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I would very much like to hear what you think of those two.

The sequel to Gideon the Ninth will be out in a couple of months. I really liked it, but I think it had enough major problems that it would make for a good book for discussion,

The narrator of Ten Thousand Doors was a finalist for the 2020 Audie awards for best female narrator for her work on this book.

[Lindsay]

I'm listening to your episode on the latest Planetfall book, and you note that you're not familiar with the Winternight series.

I just wanted to insert a plug for that series here. It's an absolutely brilliant blending of Russian mythology/folklore with historical 14th century Russia and written by someone who has deeply studied what day-to-day living in that place and time was like.

I'm generally a lot more generous with ratings than you, so take it with a grain of salt, but I 5 starred every one of these.

The first one is The Girl in the Tower.

[Ryan]

Lindsay wrote: "I'm listening to your episode on the latest Planetfall book, and you note that you're not familiar with the Winternight series.

I just wanted to insert a plug for that series here. It's an absolut..."

The first book in the Winternight series is The Bear and the Nightingale.

[Lindsay]

Ryan wrote: "The first book in the Winternight series is The Bear and the Nightingale.."

Yes, you're right. The Girl in the Tower is the second one.

[Hollowman]

About current “lockdown” and Zoom and SDing times.... how about Asimov’s The Naked Sun?

[Amy]

I’ve thought about re-reading The Naked Sun myself.

[AndrewK]

Hi luke
Hope Julianne and yourself are as well as can be over in Germany. Although I’m only half way through it, I’d like to recommend Gnomon - I see it’s also on your to-read list. Never quite read a book like this. I’m on the kindle version , suspect it might be best read rather than listened to as it’s dense and deep at times. Take care

[Ryan]

One of the other Ryans mentioned The Test by Sylvain Neuvel. Just finished it and also thought it was good -- short but packs a punch. The audiobook version is well-performed.

[Stephen]

Given the review for Gideon the Ninth, I'd be really interested in an SFBRP about the recently-released sequel Harrow the Ninth - I'm reading it now and liking it a lot; there's fewer character-juggling, twice as much mystery, more weird necro-science.

[Roland]

Strictly speaking, not a book, but I wounder what Luke thinks of "Tenet" the movie.

It does tackle topic of the time travel, that I believe Luke has a certain very strong feelings about.

[Kathleen]

I thought 'Alien Oceans' (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...) was an excellent read and would love to hear it reviewed. Granted, it's a lot of science and not much fiction, but there's still some speculation here (i.e., what alien life might actually look like). Author works at JPL.