Tired of it all, tired of this town...

[triadruid]

My reading habits lately have tended toward the "classics", and dystopian/utopian science-fiction social commentary in particular. Currently reading Stranger in a Strange Land and Brave New World at the same time (which was a bad plan), just finished The Fountainhead, etc... but you know what the problem is with reading the classics decades late? They're so...dated. :P Actually, it's just that I've read a lot of the stories that built on their themes, so the supposedly-original thinkers of the 30s-60s sometimes don't entrance me as much as if I'd caught them in the 'right order'.

In any case, between those books and The Vanishing Voter, my current non-fiction, I need something a bit more... escapist in my next reading material. Most of my actual to-read list is fairly heavy, with the exception of Victor Gischler's Gun Monkeys, which is hard to find, and Jim Butcher, which we have currently loaned out. So I settled for Neil Gaiman's comic The Books of Magic for today, which is enjoyable so far (even if it does further the other kick, which is books on magical practice).

So, any suggestions? I couldn't find the first book of David Weber's "War Gods" series, either...

Comments

[orcjohn.livejournal.com]

Both of Weber's War God series are available online for free at the Baen free library.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Huh; that's good to know, although most of my computer time these days is taken up with interactive stuff, I'm not sure I could sit and read a whole novel there.... :P

[orcjohn.livejournal.com]

The books come in several formats, so if you have a palm or other hand-held you can down load to that and read anywhere

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I keep forgetting my PDA will do that.

[kenllama.livejournal.com]

have you ever read any David Brin? His Earth is an excellent (and substantial) near-future scenario that is not quite dystopia. (in fact, what he says in the forward or afterward or something is "this is about the most optimistic future I can imagine, and that's kind of frightening.") he wrote it 20 years ago about imagined events/state of the world 30 years from now. it's interesting to see how much has already come true, and how much is never likely to at all. i also enjoyed his novel The Postman, which is far better than the dreadful movie that was rendered from it.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Is Earth the one with the micro-singularity? If so, yes... I wasn't terribly impressed with that or his contribution to the Foundation prequels, but I still intend to read some of the rest of his stuff.... Earth had a space-opera feel to some of the coincidences and adventure stuff in it, if that makes sense? Unless I'm thinking of something by Greg Bear...

[kenllama.livejournal.com]

You're thinking of the right guy. I've found Brin to be highly variable. I wouldn't go so far as to call Earth space-opera, but the coincidences do rack up a bit; on the whole, it ventures further into magic than is usual for the genre. I've never read the Foundation stuff. His first Uplift trilogy is quite good (though I might skip Sundiver); the second Uplift trilogy started out well but went seriously downhill, probably due to a major lack of planning.

His most recent novel, Kiln People is more speculative and a little... I almost want to say "fluffier," and quite enjoyable. I like most of his work, but it is of decidedly variable worth.

Oh! And what about Lois McMaster Bujold? Mz Kittenpants, I believe, had indicated interest but not experience. Her Vorkosigan books have a decidedly space-opera feel to them, but she packs a lot of wallop into the genre. Totally worthwhile. And her Curse of Chalion is some of the worthiest fantasy I've read.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Brin, Bear, and Benford wrote a trilogy of prequels to Foundation series. I think I could take a miss on the whole mess, frankly. The only thing worse than out-of-date sci-fi in my book is sci-fi that gets anachronistic in its own timeline (Asimov and the Three B's both did this with the prequels IIRC, adding things that never existed before, like wormhole travel, and Seldon's wife).

I'm certain one or both of my other thirds have read Ms. Bujold, but damned if I can remember their opinion of them at the moment (I should clarify that I like space opera at times - frinstance, e.e. "doc" smith's Skylark series? - it just jarred with what I expected from Brin).

Lois McMaster Bujold

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I totally enjoyed Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt. I recommend them generally to anybody. I'm terribly fond of their gods.

I started the new series, the one about the Lakewalkers (can't remember the name of the thing), though, and was heartily disappointed. Haven't read any of the Vorkosigan ones yet.

Re: Lois McMaster Bujold

[kenllama.livejournal.com]

Curse of Chalion is one of my very favorite books.

The Lakewalker books I enjoyed, but they are definitely not up to her usual, admittedly stellar, standards. They were a bit like going to a really good restaurant and being served a nicely made candy bar instead of an impeccable three-course meal. And had it not been written by Lois, I might not have finished the second one (though, eventually, I was glad I did.)

The Vorkosigan stuff is a whole career's worth of work, and spans nearly two decades of her professional life and development. I like reading the books both in the internal chronological order and in the order she wrote them. (She did some very meaningful back-and-fill there for a while.) But I would generally recommend reading them in internal-chrono order first. I would also recommend starting tomorrow!

I'll be curious to hear your impressions going from Chalion to the Vorkosiverse. They are pretty different places (though you can always count on Lois to give you a nice, rugged, battered old soldier to <3.)

enjoy!
k

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I've got some stuff on my shelves that you haven't read. Can I interest you in some China Mieville? It's full of grit and monsters and trains!

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's true, I'm sure you've got plenty I haven't read. Mieville might be a good one.

Have you read Books of Magic? I'll bring it home for you if you haven't, I think you'll like it. It's got John Constantine, and some elements of Promethea to the storyline.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I <3 John Constantine, the miserable fuck. I don't know that I have read that one, though.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

I'm currently re-reading Random Acts of Senseless Violence, despite having a stack of new books waiting to be read, including several by my favorite author.

Which is to say, I recommend this book highly, as well as the other books set in Womack's fiction: Ambient, Heathern, Elvissey, Terraplane, Going Going Gone, and Let's Put The Future Behind Us.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Womack's Ambient is on my list already, good to know somebody else likes him (I don't remember where I picked his name up, to be honest).

I was at the library today and saw some other W-author that I wanted to remember, even though it was too hefty a book for this time around... but I didn't have something to write his name/the book's title down with. I hate that...

[leiandra.livejournal.com]

This is one of the benefits of a camera phone. I wander the book stores (used & new) and take snaps of books that appeal to me so I can read up on them online when I get home (or just remember what that book's name is when I go back with money).

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

That's clever, but it does involve me getting a camera phone. I think I'll find a pen, instead... ;)