What was that sci fi book you were reading?

( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:39, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

Gatweay by Frederik Pohl
thoroughly enjoyable
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:39, Reply)

Cheers, i'll give it a read
I plowed through the Dune novels a few years ago and it put me off sci fi. I think i'm ready to return.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:41, Reply)

Larry Niven's known space books are rather good
Mostly a ton of short stories, then a few novels woven between/after them (Ringworld, Fleet of Worlds), well worth tracking down the short story books first though (Tales of Known Space is a good start, and the easiest to find)
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Mon 24 May 2010, 14:44, Reply)

gateway will be a good way to ease yourself back in
it's a relatively slim volume and is not in-your face-terminology and stuff
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:44, Reply)

Ordered
£1.67 second hand from a Play.com market seller, so it's probably in a shocking state. I dont mind as long as it has all the pages.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:53, Reply)

that's my view on books
I've had ones from amazon marketplace that have cost me 1p and have been indistinguishable from brand new ones in the same order.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:55, Reply)

Ha! I buy lots of 1p books from Amazon (plus the £2.75 p&p)
I agree, some look brand spanking new.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:58, Reply)

I love the 1p sellers on amazon
Its a really good place to find the slightly obscure stuff, plus once you get enough, the amazon recommendations system actually throws out some pretty good stuff (until you ruin it all by getting duct tape online because you're too lazy to go into town, speaking of which, I should have gone food shopping about an hour ago, laters all)
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Mon 24 May 2010, 15:02, Reply)

Big or little Sainsburys?

( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:03, Reply)

Covered market
I try to only use the supermarket for things I have to get there*, plus big sainsburys is a trek and a half (from LMH)

*because I'm just a little bit middle class
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Mon 24 May 2010, 15:06, Reply)

I love the covered market
but I never remember to shop properly there
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:11, Reply)

The butcher I normally go to didnt have any meat out
due to the heat
The deli I wanted to investigate apparently closed a while ago

Gave up and went to little sainsburys and got a big carton of apple juice which i've nearly finished already
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Mon 24 May 2010, 16:13, Reply)

I liked
them. Or at least, I liked the first two; I haven't read any of the others. Why'd you think they were so bad?
(berk, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:45, Reply)

Dune is good
But the series suffers from the rule that no series is ever good after the 4th book
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Mon 24 May 2010, 14:46, Reply)

I was discussing them with someone yesterday
and about how books finished by someone other than the original author are usually rubbish.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:52, Reply)

First book was incredible
I actually had dreams about being on Dune. Next 2 were ok, but the last 3 were inpenetrable.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:51, Reply)

I can recommend some good sci-fi
especially short story wise
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:59, Reply)

go for it
could do with a few tips for new books
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:05, Reply)

Please do
i'm not a massive sci-fi fan, but a good book is always welcome regardless of genre.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:07, Reply)

Well for getting back into sci-fi
I second Vipros recommendation of Gateway, any of the Robot books by Asimov, short stories by Philip K Dick (he excels in short stories rather than books) David Brin for funny quirky looks at the subject, for a more literary take on the whole angle then read Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let me Go,' A Canticle for Leibowitz for the same thing, and the whole 'Book of the New Sun' by Gene Wolfe
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:19, Reply)

Cheers
I read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" about 20 y/o. I enjoyed it but it's one of the few books I have read where I prefer the film.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:25, Reply)

I applaud your choices there young lady.

( girlinthehole, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:31, Reply)

Marrow is excellent
And I enjoyed Terminal world, my mate less so
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 14:50, Reply)

Terminal World is good
But I wouldn't really recommend it as a reintroduction to sci-fi, you need to know a few futuristic concepts to work out what's really going on at a lot of points (like the discussions on the original purpose of Spearpoint).

Actually, the same goes for all of his work, utterly fantastic, but definitely not a gentle introduction to science fiction.
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Mon 24 May 2010, 14:56, Reply)

Most hard sci-fi
is like that though, can be quite tough going, still think the Iain M Banks books are the pinnacle of any sci-fi though, the Culture is just one of those creations of total glory

I would recommend a lot of Ken Macleod stuff too.
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:02, Reply)

I agree with you about Iain M Banks
marvellous stuff
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:07, Reply)

I read "Use of weapons" about 14 years ago
the long unpronouncable names put me off a bit, "amistratoff-Skiramtopf" or whatever the robot was called...
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:08, Reply)

use of weapons is among my least favourite really
player of games is the fucking business
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:09, Reply)

Finally
we agree on something! Player of Games is so often read and re-read and re-read that the poor book is battered and threadbare, I must read that at least once a year without fail!
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:11, Reply)

same here
it was my first iain m banks book, and is still my favourite
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:12, Reply)

I started at the start
with Consider Phlebas, which in itself is an astounding book, Use of Weapons grew on me after the third read, it starts to make much more sense.

Still haven't finished Feersum Enjinn though, I can't read the damn thing it makes my head hurt
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:16, Reply)

I should reread use of weapons I think
feersum enjin was a pain in the arse.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:17, Reply)

It's a grower
Excession is a book I dig out if blue, the Affornt are brilliant! even better than Ashers Prador
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:20, Reply)

I love Excession
great book
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:33, Reply)

I find
with sci-fi its all about the feel of it, if the whole universe and stuff feels ok you can embrace and read it without any problem at all.

Sometimes however if something grates I simply cannot read it, that Peter F Hamilton trilogy where it starts off absolutey brilliant, then when he brings in the 1930's gangsters and loads of Elvis's it annoyed me so much I threw the book away!
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:14, Reply)

I'm reading a Peter F Hamilton book at the moment
my mate has been pestering me to do so for ages, and I have given in to shut him up. I'd read the previous ones, and the trilogy you talk about and they were pretty average sci fi I'd say. This new one is the biggest fucking book in the world though. I swear it weighs about 5 fucking kilos.

My mate thinks it is the best book he's ever read. I recently came to the conclusion that this is because he is immature.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:19, Reply)

Not a huge Hamilton fan
really liking Asher & Macleod at the moment, Adam Roberts stuff is clever but sometimes makes my head hurt, not instantly accessible, the Takeshi Kovacs books of course are ace for mindless daft space punk violence
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:22, Reply)

It's always awkward
when you're recommended a book and don't enjoy it. I got told by a friend that I simply must read Robert Jordan, and found it quite awkward to say I didn't want to borrow the rest of the books because they were a bit dire.

I think I've done that to Larry Vest with Robin Hobb though
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:28, Reply)

I recall liking Robert Jordan when I read it before
and have been intending to recap and finish the series, however, I did also like David Eddings in the past and I can't bear to read his stuff any more because it was tripe.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:33, Reply)

Argh the fucking wheel of time
I gave up and almost lost the will to live at book 6.

Luckily I work with two guys with similar but ever so slightly different tastes book wise so we are always lending each other new and different stuff, can be hit or miss but more hits so far.

Not really got the classics apart from a shelf full of Asimov and the 70's stuff from Moorcock at his peak
(Halfy By light alone, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:35, Reply)

See also:
Alastair Reynolds
Charles Stross
(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:18, Reply)

I love Alastair Reynolds stuff
sci fi film noir
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 24 May 2010, 15:20, Reply)