THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: GilloD on November 07, 2010, 03:01:48 AM
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I kind of like cheap thrills. Books where its like "JIMMY WAS ON A PLANET. IT WAS SPOOKY (50 pages go by) JIMMY IS THE PLANET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". I really like short stories for this reason, but I;m nit picky. Bonus points for Kindle availability. Exrta credit for Post Apocalypse that doesn't involve "roving gangs"
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Philip K Dick could be what you're looking for, futuristic, there's twists and his novels are fairly short. The obvious choice would be 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' which is pretty accessible. I like Martian Time Slip, Ubik.
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Dan Simmons' Hyperion
Though it might not be the pulp you're looking for
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I read this recently
(http://imgur.com/pYWzC.jpg)
Was pretty good. Had the spooky aspect but it doesn't wrap up a lot of the mysteries presented (which can be good or bad, I wasn't angered by it in this).
Also if you want some short stories check out
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
http://www.amazon.com/Wastelands-Apocalypse-John-Joseph-Adams/dp/1597801054
Good mixture of post apocalyptic stories, some with a pinch of science fiction and others with that sort of weird spooky sort of scenario (instead of just Mad Max shit). There's a particular short that involves how a bunch of network admins would deal with a fast moving virus that forces them to connect with the outside world via the internet (whatevers left of it).
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(http://www.sffaudio.com/images06/TANTORAlteredCarbon500.jpg)
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Planetary.
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Neuromancer by William Gibson
Software by Rudy Rucker
Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody [post-apocalypse without roving gangs]
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Planetary.
This was my inspiration for startinbg the thread. Planetary is my ideal form.
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I really liked Signal to Noise and A Signal Shattered by Eric Nylund.
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Use of weapons has a great twist to it.
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Use of weapons has a great twist to it.
Much as I love Banks, I think we need a moratorium on recommending him in book threads.
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Use of weapons has a great twist to it.
Much as I love Banks, I think we need a moratorium on recommending him in book threads.
I've never read him. Just DL'ed the whole Culture series. Is that a good place to start?
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I'm reading some Asimov short stories at the moment. 95% of sci-fi fans have obviously read his stuff, but just in case you haven't, I've never found anyone better (sadly).
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Here's another recommendation:
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
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Use of weapons has a great twist to it.
Much as I love Banks, I think we need a moratorium on recommending him in book threads.
I've never read him. Just DL'ed the whole Culture series. Is that a good place to start?
Yes.
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Here's another recommendation:
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Damn it, I was going to be cool and recommend this. :(
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If you wanted to be cool, you'd have recommended The Illustrated Man or The Golden Apples of the Sun instead.
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And another:
Super-Toys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss
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Planning on buying Ender's Game, The Forever War, and Armor.
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Planning on buying Ender's Game, The Forever War, and Armor.
The Haldeman book? That's fantastic.
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Co-Sign Altered Carbon.
dap
Read his other stuff?
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So I read CONSIDER PHLEBAS or whatever that first Culture book is. Pretty good for the first like 75%. It's action packed, it has some neat-o ideas and then it totally fucking stalls out in the caverns or whatever. They spend like 200 pages fucking around and like 80 pages about how that Idrian is escaping his bonds.
There's like that whole section with Fal N'geestra, the Culture woman, that's about fucking nothing. There's some cool stuff that attempts to characterize the Mind for no reason at al because it doesn't get mentioned for the last 50% of the book. And then in the last 10% you can almost see Banks just checking characters off (Okay, Jimmy is dead. Next, kill Todd. Okay, here we go, on to Susan...).
It was interesting enough but the end was terrible and the whole thing is jammed with silly posturing.
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(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Bv9abBiqL.jpg)
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A SCANNER DARKLY
READ IT ITS SO GOOD
I love sci-fi that isn't set in space but donw on earth, like Cyberpunk but not as cheesy. A Scanner Darkly is AMAZING.
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Use of weapons has a great twist to it.
Much as I love Banks, I think we need a moratorium on recommending him in book threads.
Unless it's The Wasp Factory. :bow2
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I'd like some good fantasy books. Fantasy is probably the worst genre in literature.
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I'd like some good fantasy books. Fantasy is probably the worst genre in literature.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
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I tried reading Song of Ice and Fire and that was good....for a fantasy novel.
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I tried reading Song of Ice and Fire and that was good....for a fantasy novel.
:rofl
worst troll ever
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I tried reading Song of Ice and Fire and that was good....for a fantasy novel.
:rofl
worst troll ever
:smug
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Don't you have some Jane Eyre to go read, Himu?
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Don't you have some Jane Eyre to go read, Himu?
how'd you know I like that book?
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-Talks about "literature"
-Believes fantasy is the worst genre
-Says A Song of Fire and Ice is good...for a fantasy book
All the hallmarks of a Jane Eyre fanboy.
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Haha, you're so cute.
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And don't you forget it.
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Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay is pretty good Himu
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake is probably right up your alley. I read some of it at the library :bow
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Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay is pretty good Himu
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake is probably right up your alley. I read some of it at the library :bow
Definitely Earthsea. The first three books at least are very good. Not quite the typical young-kids-on-a-prophecy-quest or the grimdark everybody-dies that seem to be the two most popular routes in fantasy, it settles into a nice medium and is well-written without getting bogged down in description.
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he'll just hate on it
"too much magic, and the writing is quite poor compared to Dickens"
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he'll just hate on it
"too much magic, and the writing is quite poor compared to Dickens"
:lol
"I say, Jenkins, could you fetch a wastepaper backet in which to dispose of this preposterous bit of prose? And bring something weighty next time! None of this magical humdrum!" :tophat
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:lol
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For the record, I love fantasy. It's just that fantasy genre as a whole is riddled with so much mediocrity. For example, Song of Ice and Fire is pretty good, but I don't think it's so good it deserves the accolades it receives. It's almost as if the only reason people champion the series so much is because it's pretty good compared to its contemporaries.
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he'll just hate on it
"too much magic, and the writing is quite poor compared to Dickens"
:lol
"I say, Jenkins, could you fetch a wastepaper backet in which to dispose of this preposterous bit of prose? And bring something weighty next time! None of this magickal humdrum!" :tophat
fixed :tophat
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Don't worry Himu I agree I got bored about 20 pages in. Oh look, ANOTHER incest trope. ::) ::) ::)
Fuckin SA still hasn't sent me ur custom title
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i bet himu hasn't read all four books in the series
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why would you if the first one is terrible
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Don't worry Himu I agree I got bored about 20 pages in. Oh look, ANOTHER incest trope. ::) ::) ::)
Fuckin SA still hasn't sent me ur custom title
Uh, the incest plotline is amazing
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i bet himu hasn't read all four books in the series
True, I'm slowly working my way through. I should pick up book three.
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I'd like some good fantasy books.
Hay guys, have I mentioned this book called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell?
Uh, the incest plotline is amazing
make this ur tag plz
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For the record, I love fantasy. It's just that fantasy genre as a whole is riddled with so much mediocrity. For example, Song of Ice and Fire is pretty good, but I don't think it's so good it deserves the accolades it receives. It's almost as if the only reason people champion the series so much is because it's pretty good compared to its contemporaries.
Earthsea
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I'd like some good fantasy books.
Hay guys, have I mentioned this book called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell?
I have heard about this but haven't been assed to read it.
For the record, I love fantasy. It's just that fantasy genre as a whole is riddled with so much mediocrity. For example, Song of Ice and Fire is pretty good, but I don't think it's so good it deserves the accolades it receives. It's almost as if the only reason people champion the series so much is because it's pretty good compared to its contemporaries.
Earthsea
Got anything similar to Neverwhere?
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I haven't really read any urban fantasy.
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This thread should produce a :SMHimu emote
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Got anything similar to Neverwhere?
Try Emma Bull. There are heaps of recent urban fantasy stuff, but it looks from the summary to be mainly of the Twilight and Harry Potter ilk. Just pick up the White Wolf Changeling RPG worldbook and make your own stories.
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Got anything similar to Neverwhere?
Try Emma Bull. There are heaps of recent urban fantasy stuff, but it looks from the summary to be mainly of the Twilight and Harry Potter ilk. Just pick up the White Wolf Changeling RPG worldbook and make your own stories.
>:(
I know I'm trolling fantasy genre but you didn't have to go THAT far. Okay?!
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Have you read any of Clive Barkers fantasy books? They're supposed to be pretty good.
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For the record, I love fantasy. It's just that fantasy genre as a whole is riddled with so much mediocrity. For example, Song of Ice and Fire is pretty good, but I don't think it's so good it deserves the accolades it receives. It's almost as if the only reason people champion the series so much is because it's pretty good compared to its contemporaries.
K. J. Parker.
Period.
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For the record, I love fantasy. It's just that fantasy genre as a whole is riddled with so much mediocrity. For example, Song of Ice and Fire is pretty good, but I don't think it's so good it deserves the accolades it receives. It's almost as if the only reason people champion the series so much is because it's pretty good compared to its contemporaries.
K. J. Parker.
Period.
The Engineer Trilogy sounds interesting as hell. Almost bought it a couple months ago
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I saw two books from the Engineer Trilogy yesterday, but they were books 2 and 3. :-\
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I've read that the books are quite descriptive of even the most mundane details; does it become grating? I'm starting to believe this complaint/worry depends on an individual's perspective. Many people say ASOIAF is too descriptive of flags, feasts, the attire of a background character, etc; yet I've never found it over the top. And I've talked to people who dismiss the same criticism of their favorite fantasy series as well, whether its Wheel of Time or Malazan.
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just bought a kindle here last week. I'd love some good supertrashy scifi recommendations, anyone up for it?
edit: speaking of fantasy, I did something truly horrible on the kindle. I added the wheel of time glossary as a dictionary :lol
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Did we ever get a review of LIGHT from Billy Rygar? :lol
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just bought a kindle here last week. I'd love some good supertrashy scifi recommendations, anyone up for it?
Rama II by Gentry Lee - On top of being a pointless sequel, it's also quite supertrashy. Has some of the most UGH sex scenes I've read. Don't worry about it being a sequel.
Neuromancer - Delightfully trashy and also a genuinely great scifi book. Along the same line you might consider Rudy Rucker's 'Ware series or Snow Crash.
Just about anything by Piers Anthony, although specifically the Xanth series.
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my favorite "trashy" SF book is Gateway by Frederick Pohl - there's something about that book that just makes me reread it every 5 years
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I've read that the books are quite descriptive of even the most mundane details; does it become grating? I'm starting to believe this complaint/worry depends on an individual's perspective. Many people say ASOIAF is too descriptive of flags, feasts, the attire of a background character, etc; yet I've never found it over the top. And I've talked to people who dismiss the same criticism of their favorite fantasy series as well, whether its Wheel of Time or Malazan.
I wouldn't say GRR's "too descriptive" so much as he feels a need to recite them all, so that it's like reading a menu or a guest list rather than something that adds to the characters or the plot or my immersion in the book.
Jon tried to keep a stern mein, but secretly he marveled at the banners unfurled all around him for the landsmeet. There were the familiar symbols of the most powerful nobles: the three-headed red dragon of House Targaryen, the leaping trout of Riverrun, the gold lion of Lannister, the soaring falcon of Arryn against a white moon, and of course his own (unacknowledged) family's, the grey direwolf of House Stark.
But besides these were the angry stoat of House Symon, the mincing badger of Sunfall, the purple vole of House Kesper, the paradoxical frog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradoxical_frog) of the Lower Hardlands, the preening sloth of Gilder, the yellow octopus grappling with a black cactus representing the Mudronnus clan, the engorged negro of House Bore, and many others.
I don't want to bring down anyone who enjoys the books or anything like that, but god damn did I want to yell "get on with it!" every hundred pages or so.
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I've read that the books are quite descriptive of even the most mundane details; does it become grating? I'm starting to believe this complaint/worry depends on an individual's perspective. Many people say ASOIAF is too descriptive of flags, feasts, the attire of a background character, etc; yet I've never found it over the top. And I've talked to people who dismiss the same criticism of their favorite fantasy series as well, whether its Wheel of Time or Malazan.
i don't find it boring, but then i am boring
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just bought a kindle here last week. I'd love some good supertrashy scifi recommendations, anyone up for it?
Rama II by Gentry Lee - On top of being a pointless sequel, it's also quite supertrashy. Has some of the most UGH sex scenes I've read. Don't worry about it being a sequel.
Neuromancer - Delightfully trashy and also a genuinely great scifi book. Along the same line you might consider Rudy Rucker's 'Ware series or Snow Crash.
Just about anything by Piers Anthony, although specifically the Xanth series.
I read nearly every one of the Xanth books as a kid...
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just bought a kindle here last week. I'd love some good supertrashy scifi recommendations, anyone up for it?
Rama II by Gentry Lee - On top of being a pointless sequel, it's also quite supertrashy. Has some of the most UGH sex scenes I've read. Don't worry about it being a sequel.
Neuromancer - Delightfully trashy and also a genuinely great scifi book. Along the same line you might consider Rudy Rucker's 'Ware series or Snow Crash.
Just about anything by Piers Anthony, although specifically the Xanth series.
I read nearly every one of the Xanth books as a kid...
Well, you're in luck because he's written about twenty since then!
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I read nearly every one of the Xanth books as a kid...
Well, you're in luck because he's written about twenty since then!
Counting Xanth as fantasy is like counting the Six Flags amusement park caricaturist as art.
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Got anything similar to Neverwhere?
Try Emma Bull. There are heaps of recent urban fantasy stuff, but it looks from the summary to be mainly of the Twilight and Harry Potter ilk. Just pick up the White Wolf Changeling RPG worldbook and make your own stories.
>:(
I know I'm trolling fantasy genre but you didn't have to go THAT far. Okay?!
I'm actually not counting those two series, but rather the urban magic (usually "majick") stuff which borders on YA or romance genre crap.
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I've read that the books are quite descriptive of even the most mundane details; does it become grating? I'm starting to believe this complaint/worry depends on an individual's perspective. Many people say ASOIAF is too descriptive of flags, feasts, the attire of a background character, etc; yet I've never found it over the top. And I've talked to people who dismiss the same criticism of their favorite fantasy series as well, whether its Wheel of Time or Malazan.
I wouldn't say GRR's "too descriptive" so much as he feels a need to recite them all, so that it's like reading a menu or a guest list rather than something that adds to the characters or the plot or my immersion in the book.
Jon tried to keep a stern mein, but secretly he marveled at the banners unfurled all around him for the landsmeet. There were the familiar symbols of the most powerful nobles: the three-headed red dragon of House Targaryen, the leaping trout of Riverrun, the gold lion of Lannister, the soaring falcon of Arryn against a white moon, and of course his own (unacknowledged) family's, the grey direwolf of House Stark.
But besides these were the angry stoat of House Symon, the mincing badger of Sunfall, the purple vole of House Kesper, the paradoxical frog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradoxical_frog) of the Lower Hardlands, the preening sloth of Gilder, the yellow octopus grappling with a black cactus representing the Mudronnus clan, the engorged negro of House Bore, and many others.
I don't want to bring down anyone who enjoys the books or anything like that, but god damn did I want to yell "get on with it!" every hundred pages or so.
Ah. I had no problem with those details, which fell in line with the book's take on medieval houses to me
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In all fairness to GRRM, it's common enough for authors who really get into their world-building. Between Perdido Street Station and The Scar, China Mieville probalby wrote about 100 paragraphs which all boiled down to "this city/borough/neighborhood's history of immigration gave its markets/architecture/streets a very chaotic, heterogeneous feel."
Now that I think about it, Transmetropolitan does basically the same thing with its backgrounds. Which is nice, because it doesn't require any break in the action.
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Agreed, it comes with the territory of certain types of fantasy and sci-fi.
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In all fairness to GRRM, it's common enough for authors who really get into their world-building. Between Perdido Street Station and The Scar, China Mieville probalby wrote about 100 paragraphs which all boiled down to "this city/borough/neighborhood's history of immigration gave its markets/architecture/streets a very chaotic, heterogeneous feel."
Now that I think about it, Transmetropolitan does basically the same thing with its backgrounds. Which is nice, because it doesn't require any break in the action.
...and it gives the poor reader SOMETHING to look at other than shots of Spider talking to the camera furiously while smoking, or typing furiously, while smoking. 2000 AD (which Ellis of course grew up on) looks exactly the same, except it typically has some action going on in the foreground as well. I love Transmet but if he hadn't been able to go wild on the backgrounds, it would have been the dullest looking comic ever.
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Anyone read "The Heritage Trilogy" novels by Ian Douglas? Semper Mars, Luna Marine, Europa Strike?