Other Books you are currently reading?

So you've not read the prequels first then? nor the tie-ins with the robots series?

Best link I can find at work for the order if you bring in the robots and empire series.

 

No I have not read them in that order.

I was tempted to but I wanted to read them in order of actual release as i know the first in the foundation trilogy was from 1951 ( i believe there are a couple of others from the same time period that relate to the galactic empire) and I just really wanted to start there, once i have read the original trilogy I plan on going back and doing it all in chronological order.

 

I read them in a completely random order first, I think I "started" with Foundation and Empire, or Forward Foundation, then eventually went back and read them in order. Although I have never done the full read as it were. But I have read all the Empire and Robot books separately...

Too many other books, and too little time to go back and re-read them from beginning to end, it would not be a trivial undertaking!

 

I've just finished reading (well listening as I'm really in to audiobooks at the moment) Caliban's War (2nd in the Expanse Series) by James S.A Corey. (the narrator is really good on these)

Really enjoyed it. Wasn't sure I would when it started with the new characters and wished I could just get back to Holden and his crew but they soon grew on me and I looked forward to their character chapters - (each chapter is from the point of view of a different character - like Game of Thrones)

It's not ground breaking SciFi by any stretch but good characters and plots make a great read.

I think what I like about the series the most is that expansion in the solar system and population of various planets/asteroids and moons all seems very realistic. It also injects the right amount of fantasy stuff as well, with

The familiarity of the Solar System makes it much more interesting to me. I've always had trouble getting into SciFi books set in other galaxies etc, maybe I haven't given them enough opportunities to get going or perhaps I've been picking bad ones to read.

Can anyone recommend any other space opera style books set in the Solar System rather than the far reaches of the galaxy?

 

I've just finished Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.

Started really well, was loving all the Google-related cloud computing malarkey, but the ending just involved a huge dose of deus ex machina and was really disappointing. It's like the author ran out of ideas and just wanted to finish the book.

 

I'm fond of Mitch Albom books and I 'm already done with some so I'm starting to read "The First Phone Call from Heaven" I guess, everyone will love his books especially if you will try reading them.

 

Nearing the end of the long earth saga (Terry Pratchet and Stephen Baxter) it's a bit of a mish-mash of ideas strung along... in no particular order we have-

A multiverse accessed either by direct neural manipulation, or using a box powered by a potato - it is Terry Pratchet after all! This is basically the foundation off which everything else is hung.

The birth of AI and it learning how to live in a human world.

Loner vs the world.

Natural disaster(s).

Human 2.0's.

Reincarnation.

Financially induced human breading programs in the style of Heinlein.

Secret government sponsored societies.

Betrayal.

Global dominating and controlling corporation - benign.

AI nervous breakdown decides to become human.

Von Newman Machines.

Artificial disaster.

NASA fan-boys.

Messianistic character styling.

Animal cruelty.

Death, both up close and personal, and in such numbers there can't really be an emotional impact.

Startrek style "naval" action, setting wrongs right and generally adventuring into the unknown.

A talking cat...

...well, okay, it's another AI, but it really thinks it's a cat too.

Nuns.

Space elevators and the quest across another planet(s) searching for technology to plunder.

Economic and technological stagnation and depression.

Family crises.

Failures to be consistent with the treatment of angular momentum and the basic laws of "stepping" once or twice.

Sexual equality beyond just about any book I've read, the women are maybe just a tad too strong, but they've struck a pretty robust balance.

Politically endorsed racism.

Father daughter issues.

Father son issues.

A trichotomy between hunter-gatherers, farmers, and high-tech.

Blowing up the planet earth (one of them)

The necessity of religion, the (limited) death of religion, the re-birth of religious values.

Clam chowder.

Other stuff that's gotten lost amongst everything else... they really do throw the ideas and themes at you thick and fast, but generally keep a light tone throughout - which is quite impressive considering some of what they throw at you...

 

Finished A Brave New World a month or so back and just finished 1984 again. Always worth a reread.

 

I've been reading Robin Cook's Godplayer for weeks now. I can't find the time to finish it because I'm too busy with work.

 

Finished the Long Utopia then?

Whilst enjoyable, and having only read the first 3, they aren't my favourite works by either author. But saying that they are a good read, couldn't put them down
Some interesting concepts and ideas, but they get lost among everything else. Its almost like two people have been writing books individually and then they've been merged...

It was reported that the series was going to be 5 books long, I wonder if that'll happen?

 

Yes.

Agreed.

Probably not - but there's still an opening left at the end of book 4.

Just re-read Equoid for gits and shiggles - something I don't see myself doing with the long earth saga, the me of fifteen, or even ten years ago probably would have, but not today.

Equiod is set in Charles Stross's Laundry universe, where things go bump in the night. It's a nice little fast paced brutal novella which you can flick through in a couple of hours - probably even without reading any of the earlier cannon.

 

Not come across that, might look it out after I finish Peter F Hamilton' The Abyss Beyond Dreams...

 

Now there's a guy that can pen an epic saga... the Nights Dawn trilogy takes up as much space on my shelves* as Herbert's Dune saga does in six!

*I say shelves, it's mostly cardboard fruit cases and two by six'es...

 

I assume you've read the Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy then?

Would pick the commonwealth as my favourite of his settings. Nothing against Nights Dawn, but somehow the tech (and its obvious evolution from now) sits better...

 

Recently finished "The Rings of the Master" series by Jack L Chalker, kept me turning pages well past sleep time many a night.

Now working through Stephen Kings Dark Tower series.

 

That's not work....

I recently had that yearly itch to re-read the entire Dark Tower series. Might just do that after finishing Finders Keepers by King and Shardik by Adams.

 

Just finished book 2 of the tawny man trilogy, The Golden Fool. Bring on book 3 - Fool's Fate.

 

Finished Finders Keepers, not sure I will be happy with the direction of book #3 in the series, given the hints at the end of FK. Well... only time will tell.

Started Shardik.

 

Just finished The Martian (kind of had to read it in order to prepare for the movie).
It was a good enough read, but rather "simple". Finished it in two nights.

 

"Simple" as in Dan-Brown-brain-switched-off-simple?