Jul 01
It seems that I have inadvertently become a photo-blogger of late. Looking down the page, the last 4 entries are pictures. Other than that it’s been mostly quoted text or links. So, just for a change I’m mixing it up by spewing out some good old fashioned words. Just some random things floating around in my brain (bullet point format shamelessly cribbed from another blog)..
- Today was a sad day: Lugradio, one of the best podcasts ever, announced in their latest episode that they are not going to be producing it any more beyond the end of this month.
- I’ve recently been reading the two part Commonwealth Saga (Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained) by Peter F. Hamilton. He’s a new author to me and absolutely superb! Ok, you have to enjoy Sci-Fi: But if you do, for me, he is to Sci-Fi what Tolkien is to fantasy. I’ve been engrossed.
- I had 3 other points I wanted to add, but I’ve been distracted by The Internet, music on Virgin Radio and chocolate so that writing this up has taken longer than expected. So they will have to be another forthcoming post. Maybe.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:58
I recommend Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy (”The Reality Dysfunction”, “The Neutronium Alchemist” and “The Naked God”). It ends with a bit of a deus ex machina, but I still think it’s his best work. I have found him a bit patchy — his science fiction ideas are awesome; his presentation of human relationships not so much. I have most enjoyed the books which contained a maximum of the former and a minimum of the latter. I anti-recommend “Misspent Youth”, or at least recommend that you avoid paying money in order to read it. ;).
Have you read anything by Vernor Vinge?
July 6th, 2008 at 22:39
Nice. Thanks for the tips. I loved these two I read so will definitely give the Night’s Dawn trilogy a read at some point..
And no, I don’t know Vernor Vinge at all! I take it that it’s good :) It’s now added to my “to read” list. I love finding new authors. Maybe that’s also why I enjoyed the Hamilton so much: It was new to me.
July 8th, 2008 at 17:49
If you like sprawling SF sagas, I also recommend the Helliconia trilogy by Brian Aldiss. It has the feel of fantasy more than space opera; it’s planet-bound and deals with the planet’s civilisations and ecology, sort of like “Dune”.
Have you read the Dune series? I enjoyed all of the original books, although the later ones are a bit weird; I think it’s best to pretend that the ghost-written prequels/sequels don’t exist.
There’s also Asimov’s Foundation series (the sequels aren’t great; there are also ghost-written prequels which I’ve avoided).
Have you read any Iain M. Banks? If you haven’t, I recommend starting with “Consider Phlebas”, “Use of Weapons” or “Excession”.
You might also like Clarke’s Rama series. It has a bit of an iffy ending, and the writing style and tone changes in the sequels which he wrote with Gentry Lee, but I enjoyed all of the books anyway.
July 9th, 2008 at 19:33
I have to say that although I loved many of Asimov’s books, both novels and short stories, I’ve somehow never read the Foundation series. I think I most enjoyed some of the short stories though. I have also read Clarke’s Rama series though, and I liked it too.
However, for some reason I can’t explain, I really didn’t enjoy Dune at all, so never read any further than the first book. That was a long time ago, so perhaps I should give it another try. I don’t really remember what specifically I disliked, but I recall wondering what the fuss was about.
I’ve moved Iain M. Banks and Brian Aldiss up the “to read” list. :) I know of both of them, but have not yet read anything by them.