StarDestroyer.Net BBS

OK, i've read every book in my room at least three times this year, i need some new ones.

I'm in to sci-fi and some fantasy, not too into books set in the real world.

I have the following in mind:
- Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett. I like the Discworld, but i've heard that these are more kids books than the others so have avoided them. Are they "kids books"?
- The Culture novels, Iain M. banks. People on this board seem to like them, are they any good?

From what I read of discworld...no they aren't kid's only books. I'm sure someone will come in a tell you far more succiently then I have.

Culture material is always good fun. Though should be easier for you to find on your side of the pond then here.

A Fire Upon the Deep. Assuming, of course, you haven't already read it, in which case you should.

Snow Crash, Neal T. Stephenson. Not exactly the real world, but an interesting extrapolation of it.

If you're into SWEU, try Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning. Me & Wayne'll swear on its quality

The Wookiee wrote:If you're into SWEU, try Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning. Me & Wayne'll swear on its quality

I fear your Wookiee ability to tear my arms off, yet I must say I wasn't too impressed by Ghost. It's a fun read, but I found it lacking. I can't really explain why. Maybe it was too low-key, too small-scale. I don't know.

The Tiffany Aching books are quality Pratchett, definitely. If you liked Wallace you'll like these.

If you're stuck, I recommend you wander into the SF section of Waterstones and go for the SF Masterpiece works. It's a great way to discover new authors.

InnerBrat wrote:The Tiffany Aching books are quality Pratchett, definitely. If you liked Wallace you'll like these.

Wallace?

Dalton wrote:If you're into SWEU, try Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning. Me & Wayne'll swear on its quality

I've read quite a bit of the EU but i've heard some bad things about this. Still, i mihgt give it a try as it can't be as bad as Darks- wait, am i allowed to use language that bad in here?

I recomend Banks. But not Feersome Enjin. The phonetically spelt bits are a nightmare to read through and I gave up. It's a matter of taste of course, but I recomend starting elsewhere. Player of Games would be a good starting point I think and it's one of my favourites.

Culture books are always highly recommended. Sci-fi staples like Ender's Game, etc, are also good reads.

I just got a non-fiction book as a graduation gift, and it sounds immensely interesting. It's called "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", and is about puncuation. "For Sticklers!" it says.

Player of Games would be a good choice for a starting point with the Culture novels, possibly, Consider Phlebas after it.

My first Culture book was "Use of Weapons", and it was quite good.

If you're into Alternate History, Harry Turtledove's Great War series is kickass, or at least, I think it is. Starts with How Few Remain, then American Front, Walk in Hell, Breakthroughs, Blood & Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, Victorious Opposition, and Settling Accounts comes out in August...

Read The Day of the Triffids, The Sirens of Titan, I am Legend, American Gods and Valis.

All good.

2000AD wrote:- Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett. I like the Discworld, but i've heard that these are more kids books than the others so have avoided them. Are they "kids books"?

Wee Free Men is excellent, as is The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents another recent Pratchett “kids book”, I actually thought they were better than a few of the recent adult discworlds and much better than Nightwatch. They are books for teenagers or possibly excessively precocious preteens.

If you don’t mind “kids books” Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy is excellent (if you haven’t already read it) and like Wee Free Men better than much adult fiction.

I liked the Amazing Maurice book. Rather reminded me of The Secret of NIMH.

However, I found that Night Watch was by far my favorite of the Watch series, possibly even of the entire Discworld oeuvre. Then again, I'm a Vimes fan.

Dalton wrote:I liked the Amazing Maurice book. Rather reminded me of The Secret of NIMH.

However, I found that Night Watch was by far my favorite of the Watch series, possibly even of the entire Discworld oeuvre. Then again, I'm a Vimes fan.

Some of the early watch cycle were excellent however apart from the Fifth Elephant, which was a return to form the watch cycle has been in decline since Jingo. I found Jingo, The Truth and Nightwatch to be extremely heavy handed, rather laboured and in my opinion by far the worst DWs, then again I don’t like Vimes so you wouldn’t expect me to like them.

Keevan_Colton wrote:Player of Games would be a good choice for a starting point with the Culture novels, possibly, Consider Phlebas after it.

Doesn't it matter if you don't read the Culture books in chronological order then?

Plekhanov wrote:Wee Free Men is excellent, as is The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents another recent Pratchett “kids book”, I actually thought they were better than a few of the recent adult discworlds and much better than Nightwatch. They are books for teenagers or possibly excessively precocious preteens.

If you don’t mind “kids books” Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy is excellent (if you haven’t already read it) and like Wee Free Men better than much adult fiction.

Got The Subtle Knife (from HDM) for a birthday (or xmas) a while back and can't say i liked it that much, so i haven't red the other HDM books.

(on the "kiddie" DW books) Given that i'm 19 and in university i can't really say that "books for teenagers or possibly excessively precocious preteens" sound appealing to me, but given that they've got good word of mouth here i might give them a try. If they are better than Nightwatch i'll be surprised as IMO Nightwatch fucking rocks.

And on "classic sci-fi" can anyone give me anymore suggestions?
(I've already read the Ender (and Bean) books, as well as Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.)

Heinlein and Asimov, perhaps?

I've only read a little bit of Greg Bear and found it intensely boring.

Classic SF: Dune(duh), Mote in God`s Eye, Hyperion, The Hitchhiker's to the Galaxy .

Fantasy: Jhereg(Vlad Taltos series), A Game of Thrones(ASOIAF series), Kushiel's Dart(erotic Fantasy).

Dalton wrote:Heinlein and Asimov, perhaps?

I've only read a little bit of Greg Bear and found it intensely boring.

Yeah, the Foundation Trilogy is some of the best there is in all of Sci-Fi, and I have all the Empire Novels, Foundation and Earth, and the End of Eternity on my comp if anyone wants (They're out of print, mwahahahaha), so you can know the whole story. I should type up Robots and Empire and put it on my comp because that's also out of print...
PM me if you want any of the novels I have on my comp...

Xenophobe3691 wrote:

Dalton wrote:Heinlein and Asimov, perhaps?

I've only read a little bit of Greg Bear and found it intensely boring.

Yeah, the Foundation Trilogy is some of the best there is in all of Sci-Fi, and I have all the Empire Novels, Foundation and Earth, and the End of Eternity on my comp if anyone wants (They're out of print, mwahahahaha), so you can know the whole story. I should type up Robots and Empire and put it on my comp because that's also out of print...
PM me if you want any of the novels I have on my comp...

You can still buy the books. You should deleted them from you HD.

2000AD wrote:(on the "kiddie" DW books) Given that i'm 19 and in university i can't really say that "books for teenagers or possibly excessively precocious preteens" sound appealing to me

Don’t worry about the age thing I’m 26 and at Uni and thoroughly enjoyed Wee Free Men when I read it earlier this year, they’re kids books in that they are accessible to younger readers in the same way that the simpsons is accessible to younger viewers, there’s still plenty of good stuff in their for adults as well

Be careful with those offers of copied books. While booksellers haven't been attacking people the way the MPAA or RIAA have, they still own copyright.

Heinlein is very excellent at his best, kinda meh at his worst, but never gets really bad (although there can be some cringe-worthy bits, but not too many, actually).

Recommendations: Starship Troopers-- excellent read if a bit odd sometimes (his opinions on politics and people were definitely unique), Stranger in a Strange Land (would you believe the design of the waterbed is public-domain because of this book...), and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (GREAT story!!! don't let the sometimes interesting dialect of English used in the narrative put you off... I find, myself, that it adds to the versimilitiude of the tale).

He also wrote a bunch of shorter novels... kind of set in his time, so it seems a bit outdated to us, but if you look at it as being "retro" then it can be fun. I would recommend most tales having to do with Lazarus Long-- he was one of the more interesting characters in Heinlein's tales, and certainly one of the better defined. Methusleah's Children (i can't spell the name...) is one of the better ways to start finding out about him-- "Time Enough for Love" is kind of a hefty read, but it rounds out the character well.