Kevin's Watch

Isn't the Dark Half the worse Stephen King novel ever? It's certainly the most common in the Used Books Shops.

Hahaha, it wasn't great, but there are plenty worse ones.

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A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Z!

Excession, Iain M Banks.

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Avatar wrote:Excession, Iain M Banks.

--A

the culture =+10000k

Morning wrote:

Avatar wrote:Excession, Iain M Banks.

--A

the culture =+10000k

On this we agree. Probably my favourite SF writer.

u.

Orlion wrote:A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Z!

OH! I gotta re-read that one. Fun.

[[and the culture books...them too]].

Morning wrote:

Avatar wrote:Excession, Iain M Banks.

--A

the culture =+10000k

Yeah, I love them too. I always get so immersed in them.

--A

Stephen Baxter's "Ring", that ends the Xeelee Sequence, is probably the most thrilling hardline thing I ever read. And The Hyperion Cantos

Or Greg Bear's Blood Music.

Never heard of Stephen Baxter. Xeelee sounds interesting. Not easy to get, but we'll see.

Fist and Faith wrote:Never heard of Stephen Baxter. Xeelee sounds interesting. Not easy to get, but we'll see.

Trust me, read each and every of his books. All the Xeelee sequence ending in the magister opus Ring; Flood; Ark; Evolution (this one provides a specially avid reading binge, I dispatched it in two long-haul flights) and so on so forth.

Ring is a masterpiece of speculative science.

I've read his Titan and Raft. Very hard science indeed, but not as compelling as it could be. Wasn't there a book where the Earth was "stolen" as well? Or was that a different guy ...

Let me upvote the Hyperion serieses, and the Culture. A Fire In The Deep is also in my top 10. And I highly recommend Peter F. Hamilton for great hard sci-fi, but don't judge him by the The Night's Dawn "trilogy" -- he gets better.

wayfriend wrote: Wasn't there a book where the Earth was "stolen" as well? Or was that a different guy ...

I'm familiar with a work where the Earth is stolen.
Roger Allen McBride? Roger MacBride Allen? Something like that.
It was the first book of a series that I'm not sure was ever finished...
[apparently I'm too lazy to open a new window and google it...]

Sure I've said before...likely in this thread...that I think Simmons is good all around, not just Hyperion/SF. [though Hyperion is the best, I think].

At this point, agree on "Night's Dawn." It's ok, had a couple interesting aspects...but many think it's brilliant, and I don't get it.
[[heh...I think it's a fair example of peter's? or U.'s? thread about magic and plot issue.]]
His "commonwealth" books...I went back and forth a lot fairly recently, and finally concluded that the thing is I like everything about them except the sentences/style themselves. Something about it makes everything feel one step removed, filtered, never full involvement.

EDITED to add the thing I meant to say...that Baxter does look like has potential.

wayfriend wrote:I've read his Titan and Raft. Very hard science indeed, but not as compelling as it could be. Wasn't there a book where the Earth was "stolen" as well? Or was that a different guy ...

Let me upvote the Hyperion serieses, and the Culture. A Fire In The Deep is also in my top 10. And I highly recommend Peter F. Hamilton for great hard sci-fi, but don't judge him by the The Night's Dawn "trilogy" -- he gets better.

Maybe Dan Simmons in Hyperion itself? The Core (spoiler alert) and Old Earth absconded?

Richard K Morgan, Greg Egan, Alastair Reynolds...

I'll give the Culture another shot, with Excession. But I was entirely underwhelmed with Consider P-whatever.

Fist and Faith wrote:I'll give the Culture another shot, with Excession. But I was entirely underwhelmed with Consider P-whatever.

I think Excession was by far the best Culture book. The others are less so to varying degrees, but you might enjoy them once you decide to dig into the Culture. Consider Phlebas was the first one, and a little rickety for that. Use of Weapons was very good. So was Surface Detail.

Vraith wrote:I'm familiar with a work where the Earth is stolen.
Roger Allen McBride? Roger MacBride Allen? Something like that.

Bingo. The Hunted Earth series. So, add him to the list of hard sci-fi authors one could recommend.

Vraith wrote:His "commonwealth" books...I went back and forth a lot fairly recently,

I greatly enjoyed his Commonwealth series. Great future society, great aliens, great use of technology to drive plot.

Night's Dawn was really pretty good until you got to the end, and then you wanted to punch yourself for reading it.

Fist and Faith wrote:I'll give the Culture another shot, with Excession. But I was entirely underwhelmed with Consider P-whatever.

Heresy!

Yes, I've read several Horus Heresy books, from the Warhammer 40K universe.