What are you reading??

ErichPryde
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@ghce you should add Have Spacesuit, Will Travel to your Heinlein reading list (although I have a sneaking suspicion you've read it before). It's still a fan favorite of mine.


I loved the "idea" of the Foundation series as well. haven't read them in at least 20 years, but I do remember thinking that Foundation and Empire was the best of the four I read (probably because of the Mule). Good luck reading through those!
 
ghce
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
@ghce you should add Have Spacesuit, Will Travel to your Heinlein reading list (although I have a sneaking suspicion you've read it before). It's still a fan favorite of mine.


I loved the "idea" of the Foundation series as well. haven't read them in at least 20 years, but I do remember thinking that Foundation and Empire was the best of the four I read (probably because of the Mule). Good luck reading through those!
Yeah Have Space Suit Will Travel is a real classic, the only one of the above Heinlein's I dont recall reading is The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

I like Asimov but he is a difficult read with his poor use of the English language structure and flow, no more apparent than in his Foundation series which were the most cumbersome to read though its great stuff.
Hard Science Fiction is a bit hard to find with today's emphasis on fantasy and somewhat magical thinking of many modern writers.
 
ErichPryde
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ghce ghce
Yeah Have Space Suit Will Travel is a real classic, the only one of the above Heinlein's I haven't read is The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

I like Asimov but he is a difficult read with his poor use of the English language structure and flow, no more apparent than in his Foundation series which were the most cumbersome to read though its great stuff.
Hard Science Fiction is a bit hard to find with today's emphasis on fantasy and somewhat magical thinking of many modern writers.

As someone who grew up reading (as far as I can tell from our conversations) and loving essentially the same authors and books that you did, I'd love to offer some modern sci-fi recommendations that have seriously held up. I do think we went through a Fantasy phase and I do think we are currently in a "Romantasy" phase in American literature but there is some spectacular and thought-provoking science fiction that has been written over the last decade.

EDIT: Also, I really enjoyed Cat Who Walks through Walls. The cat from that book, Pixel, actually reappears in some novels by Spider Robinson (with Heinlein's permission).
 
ghce
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
As someone who grew up reading (as far as I can tell from our conversations) and loving essentially the same authors and books that you did, I'd love to offer some modern sci-fi recommendations that have seriously held up. I do think we went through a Fantasy phase and I do think we are currently in a "Romantasy" phase in American literature but there is some spectacular and thought-provoking science fiction that has been written over the last decade.
Please do suggest some, fresh ideas has always been my love for Sci-Fi and not the rehash that many contemporary authors do, rather like jumping on a gravy train to get rich.
 
ErichPryde
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ghce ghce
Please do suggest some, fresh ideas has always been my love for Sci-Fi and not the rehash that many contemporary authors do, rather like jumping on a gravy train to get rich.
Have you read Ancillary Justice? It's about a ship's AI that has been "murdered." All that remains of it is tucked into a single remaining clone body that was a soldier-drone, and it's sort of investigating its own murder while... coping with suddenly being small and human and no longer a "Ship." The book follows two time frames, it's interesting and won the Hugo in 2014. The sequels are also good and worth reading (as are some of the other books within the world built by Ann Leckie). No spoilers- this is all from the back of the book!

How about All Systems Red? (The Murderbot diaries, Martha Wells) Hugo Winner, 2018. About 170 pages- it follows SecUnit, a heavily armed security cyborg that has hacked its own governor module and wants to be left alone to watch its favorite serial show (The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon) but must pretend to still follow orders so the governor module hack isn't discovered. Of course, everything on the mission goes wrong, and SecUnit is forced to "disobey" what should be its programming to save the crew it is with. Fast-paced, a blast, the first four books in the series were all nominated for Hugos but Wells turned them down after the first one.

What I really like about Murderbot is the pacing- it's fast, snappy, and short. lots of witty internal dialogue, it's not 1940s/1950s Heinlein but in terms of pacing and dialogue I can't help but be reminded of the shorter page turners from that era. I just read another book in the series last night and couldn't put it down, they've made it into my all-time favorites list.

I've got some other recommendations I could make, but these two are good recent favorites of mine!
 
ghce
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
Have you read Ancillary Justice? It's about a ship's AI that has been "murdered." All that remains of it is tucked into a single remaining clone body that was a soldier-drone, and it's sort of investigating its own murder while... coping with suddenly being small and human and no longer a "Ship." The book follows two time frames, it's interesting and won the Hugo in 2014. The sequels are also good and worth reading (as are some of the other books within the world built by Ann Leckie). No spoilers- this is all from the back of the book!

How about All Systems Red? (The Murderbot diaries, Martha Wells) Hugo Winner, 2018. About 170 pages- it follows SecUnit, a heavily armed security cyborg that has hacked its own governor module and wants to be left alone to watch its favorite serial show (The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon) but must pretend to still follow orders so the governor module hack isn't discovered. Of course, everything on the mission goes wrong, and SecUnit is forced to "disobey" what should be its programming to save the crew it is with. Fast-paced, a blast, the first four books in the series were all nominated for Hugos but Wells turned them down after the first one.

What I really like about Murderbot is the pacing- it's fast, snappy, and short. lots of witty internal dialogue, it's not 1940s/1950s Heinlein but in terms of pacing and dialogue I can't help but be reminded of the shorter page turners from that era. I just read another book in the series last night and couldn't put it down, they've made it into my all-time favorites list.

I've got some other recommendations I could make, but these two are good recent favorites of mine!
will look those up and read them, sound fun!
 
hen
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Matt Hranek, " A man and his watch ". A collection of storys from men about their favorite watch. No technical stuff, but nice storys of been given or inherited watches from people that ment alot to the resipient. Many Rolex, Casio, and a wide selection of everything else. Just 3 or 4 Omegas and they are all Speedys. Didn't Omega have a Seamaster and Constellation range too?
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ErichPryde
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Re-reading some short stories from these two collections. Both authors have great prose but they couldn't be more different; Wolfe has a dreamlike, slightly unnerving quality to much of what he writes while Zelazny is snappy with a touch of noir, and has for the most part very centered characters. "The Death of Doctor Island" and "Tracking Song" are two stand-outs in Wolfe's collection, "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" and "The Keys to December" are two of my favorites from this Zelazny collection. But honestly, there are so many more readable shorts in both of these books, it's almost a shame to single out those four.

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Edited:
 
lindo
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Science fiction is one of my favourite genres, obviously shared by others on this thread. I particularly loved the James S.A. Corey 'The Expanse' series, starting with Leviathan Awakes. Most of the books were also made into a series streamed on Amazon Prime, but as is often the case, the books are much more immersive. I am not a fan of run of the mill space opera novels, but SF novels that introduce exciting ideas and are well written will always ring my bells.

And to the many who have already mentioned Cormac McCarthy's books I add my hearty endorsement - he was an electrifying author.
 
ghce
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lindo lindo
Science fiction is one of my favourite genres, obviously shared by others on this thread. I particularly loved the James S.A. Corey 'The Expanse' series, starting with Leviathan Awakes. Most of the books were also made into a series streamed on Amazon Prime, but as is often the case, the books are much more immersive. I am not a fan of run of the mill space opera novels, but SF novels that introduce exciting ideas and are well written will always ring my bells.

And to the many who have already mentioned Cormac McCarthy's books I add my hearty endorsement - he was an electrifying author.
The Expanse series both the books and the film production I found to be very immersive and having read and watched both found it difficult to distinguish one from the other the film being very true to the books.
What I found particularly impressive was the choice of characters in the film so much matched the books you would swear the lines were written for each individual.
 
Vinz Clortho
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Currently on a Panama Canal cruise so thought it fitting to read "Path Between the Seas." Fascinating read on the history of the canal, the explorers behind the expeditions, hardships endured, and the climate at the time on getting it built. Definitely would recommend it.

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pdxleaf
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hansaboy hansaboy
Them Navy Boys!!

👍👍👍
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This was written by a forum member and available on Amazon. The subject was my grandfather's brother.

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josiahg52
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Got the second book named Revenant-X in the Red Space Series by David Wellington having read Paradise-1 last year.

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hansaboy
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
This was written by a forum member and available on Amazon. The subject was my grandfather's brother.

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Dave, Bismarck and her sistership Tirpitz were incredible ships.
Both of them were sunk, and not many survived from Bismarck.
A sad day for the sailors, but that is war…

Thanks for the book tip!
👍👍👍
 
p4ul
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Struggled with Ulysses, The Iliad, Canterbury Tales?

Have a go at this…
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I live a few miles from Bath, would love to have met Alison!
 
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