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[Harvester]

Let's keep the image size reasonable folks.

 

[booB]

i don't understand
does the author want to do 7 or 9???

7.

 

[TheLongshot]

Over my vacation, I got to read another one of my free books:

Basically, this book is about watching the dominos fall as a being who is enslaved by a city plots to free himself. Personally, I wasn't impressed by it all that much and I don't know if I'll read any more.

 

[Akumu]

Halfway through Zoo City by Lauren Beukes - urban fantasy set in South Africa which draws a lot from Philip Pullman's daemons idea (and even homages him in places). It's pretty cool so far.

 

[monoxide_child]

7.

7 sounds like a reasonable number
more than that and it gets kinda impossible to do a "complete boxed set"
and new people will get turned off by the author for putting so many books in one single series
like star wars or star trek or forgotten realms
there's so many books already that new people don't want to read the newest one cuz they'll never have time to read all the previous ones

 

[OrbWeaver]

Finally started A Dance With Dragons.

 

[jaimek]

So per John Frank's list of stuff he wants to read next, Scott Lynch's Republic of Thieves has a possible release date of in November or December - as in, it's been turned in and undergoing revisions for some time now. Yes, I hear Glenn laughing skeptically over there, I am too, but that would be awesome if it happens.

 

[Justin G]

Yes! I didn't even know this was in the works. I loved The Magicians, so I have high hopes for this one.

 

[booB]

So per John Frank's list of stuff he wants to read next, Scott Lynch's Republic of Thieves has a possible release date of in November or December - as in, it's been turned in and undergoing revisions for some time now. Yes, I hear Glenn laughing skeptically over there, I am too, but that would be awesome if it happens.

Well, it has to come out *sometime*...

 

[Akumu]

I actually just got The Lies of Locke Lamora a few days ago.

Zoo City was great, though I wish it was a bit longer. Took out Mockingjay from the library and loved it, which surprised me because I only half-liked the first two books! Glad I stuck with it.

Currently juggling October Light by John Gardner, Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb, and The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling.

 

[Pellaz]

Finished A Dance With Dragons.

OF COURSE it ends with several cliffhangers.

For those who are wondering, towards the end of the book GRRM ties up the two separate narratives from Books 3 and 4 and everything's back on the same temporal page, so, in his words (from the Foreword), "everyone can face winter together."




.....So now I'm reading....

 

[spag]

Could use some hard sci-fi recs. Working on a very non-scifi book right now, "Cold Mountain" which has actually been a refreshing read. About done with low tech though, and ready to go in the other direction.

 

[Riceloft]

Spag:

Larry Niven - Ringworld 1 & 2
James P Hogan - Inherit The Stars
James P Hogan - The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
James P Hogan - Giant's Star

 

[Justin G]

 

[spag]

Spag:

Larry Niven - Ringworld 1 & 2
James P Hogan - Inherit The Stars
James P Hogan - The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
James P Hogan - Giant's Star

Done the Ringworlds.

I've read two Hogan novels. Two Faces Of Tomorrow and can't remember the other off hand. I know I started on a third one back then, and it turned into more of a political kind of book, and I never went back. So maybe the Giants series is better. I'll try the first one for sure. Thanks.

 

[Riceloft]

The first 2-3 Giants books are great. Either book 3 or 4 starts getting into a lot of politics and then it gets boring. You don't need to read the whole series to enjoy it. Each book can stand on its own pretty well.

 

[Harvester]

I'm stoked that someone wrote a speculative fiction novel on Percy Fawcett's search in the Amazon.

 

[Pellaz]

Done the Ringworlds.

You might find Niven's more recent Fleet of Worlds books (prequels to the Ringworld story) enjoyable. The first one is a bit of a re-hash of stories that any Known Space denizen has already read from other points of view, but the series really settles in quite well.

I've read two Hogan novels. Two Faces Of Tomorrow and can't remember the other off hand. I know I started on a third one back then, and it turned into more of a political kind of book, and I never went back.

He wrote several technothrillers at one point, but my guess is maybe you read Voyage To Yesteryear. I could certainly see a "too political" (i.e., too libertarian) complaint about it, but I loved the fact that it was that rarest of rarities....a workable utopia.

So maybe the Giants series is better. I'll try the first one for sure. Thanks.

Terrific books. I'm actually inclined to trudge upstairs and dig them out for a re-read.

The first book, Inherit the Stars, is probably the only Western book ever to be featured as a major plot item in an episode of a Japanime series.

(Robotech Next Generation aka Mospeada aka The Invid War, episode "Paper Hero." The Japanese know good 'hard' SF when they read it. )

 

[spag]

I think the other Hogan I had read was Voyage, but the political book, again, this has been a long time so I'm fuzzy, Code of the Lifemaker. Doesn't matter. I'll start on "Inherit the Stars" next.

I'll check out the Fleet of Worlds books too. I like Niven. I'm reading at such a slow pace now, since 95% of my time is with a school related book, so I get a dozen pages or so before I get too tired and go to sleep. Takes me a month to get through a book now....

 

[Pellaz]

Weird, Code of the Lifemaker didn't come across to me as overly political, just as a scientifically plausible tale of machine-intelligence evolution. But it's been a while since I read it.

Niven is one of my favorite SF authors ever. BTW, before reading the Fleet of Worlds books you might want to pick up Protector and re-read it, as the events and characters in that book figure somewhat in the Fleet books as well. I went back and re-read that one, Tales of Known Space and Neutron Star after the Fleet of Worlds books just because Known Space is such a fun backdrop for Niven's stories.