They are, arent they. i love the way the people seem normal but then the cracks gradually start to show...

After it was mentioned twice here in the space of a week, usually a good recommendation, I'm reading Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.

I've also gone back to reading Don Quixote and it's just fantastic.

Has anyone read anything by Kevin J Anderson? I picked up the first of his Saga of the Seven Suns series because it was covered in praise and it was a big and I fancy getting stuck into a long space opera type tying again. Unfortunately it's rubbish. The books are thick, sure. But that's because it's double line spaced and only uses 2/3rds of the page. It reads like a summary. I can't put my finger on why but the way it's written doesn't suck you in, it just seems to skim the surface of the story. Anyway, a total waste. I'll read a few more chapters, but I cab see myself giving up on this one.

Can anyone recommend a good Sci-Fi series that'll keep me going. Something space opera and hard sci-fi. Something in the vein of Nights Dawn, Commonwealth Saga, Revelation Space. Is there anything else?

I haven't read anything but have heard from many sources that his Dune prequels are appalling.



Hmmm. I'd strongly recommend Vernor Vinge's A Fire upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. You could also try Dan Simmons's Hyperion and David Zindell's Neverness, and their sequels. I quite like Neal Ashers' Polity novels.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books aren't quite what you've asked for but are very good.

I've read the Hyperion/Endymion series and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought Illium/Olympos were even better though. I'll look into some of those other ones though, thanks.

Yes, several of his Star Wars novels, and I think I may have read his X-Files novel as well. It's a long time since I read them now, but I seem to remember enjoying his Star Wars novels at the time. Looking back, I suspect they weren't the best literature and I've never been inspired to seek out any of his other work.

On a slightly related note, if I were to try a Peter F. Hamilton novel, what would people recommend?

I'd say Pandora's Star, which has one sequel - Judas Unchained. You can read the prologue here.

Cheers Jon, I'll take a look at that this evening.

His Nights Dawn Trilogy is one of the best sci-fi stories, hell, any genre, that I've ever read. It is over 3000 pages of greatness though. That's The Reality Dysfunction > The Nuetronium Alchemist > The Naked God.

His Commonwealth Sagaincludes the two part Pandoras Star and Judas Unchained. Again, big books, and good, but not up to the Nights Dawn. Still very high quality though. In th same universe is theh Void Trilogy, which is only one book in so far. Best to read the others first. Also in this universe is the shorter Mispent Youth which I haven't read but haven't heard great things about.

Fallen Dragon is an excellent single book story. It's a neat story and reminds me a bit of Richard Morgans Kovac books.

He also has a few books in his Greg Mandel series, detective novels, but I haven't read any of those.

If you don't mind being in for the long haul, I'd jump in to the Nights Dawn Trilogy with The Reality Dysfunction, but if you want a taste that won't leave you wondering what happens next at the end, then I'd read Fallen Dragon. Both are excellent.

Wrong!


Right!

'Nights Dawn' encapsulates all the best of PFH. Re-reading it now I'm hugely impressed with how so many disparate threads drawn together so masterfully. And it's all better written than his more recent stuff, I think. There are enough people who disagree - I wasn't a big fan of the two Commonwealth saga books Jon mentioned, although the latest one (set several hundred years later) strips away all the crap and gets down to business in a much more entertaining way. The later books are also essentially the same story of 'universal horror threatening all life'.

I've finally decided my favourite SF author is Alastair Reynolds, which is why I'm so excited about this, House of Suns out in April.

I'm not 100% on Alistair Reynolds. I do enjoy the books, but I seem to have just blanked a lot of revelation space. I remember the ship and the captain, the 'tower', the cubes, the psycho Conjoiner, and some big guns? And the greenfly. And Chasm City. But the rest, and the story, has just gone in and out. I really liked Century Rain though, and Pushing Ice was brilliant if a little protracted at the end, and the recent short stories I read make me think I should go back and reread the other books.

You seem to be recalling things from right across the Inhibitors series, but there are indeed sections of it which are forgettable. 'Chasm City' itself is a brilliant SF mystery novel meets detective story which sits well alone, if you were thinking of rereading it. I have only managed to go back and read that and 'Revelation Space'; not the other two.

But yeah, 'Century Rain' and 'Pushing Ice' were the two stand-alones which really impressed me, and stood up to re-reading also.

And since then, the two superb short-story collections 'Zima Blue' and 'Galactic North' have cemented his position as my favourite.

Yeah, when I said revelation Space I meant the whole arc of books. And when I said Chasm City, I meant the City, not the book, that's the only one I haven't read yet.

Also, in your short stories, your forgetting Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days. Diamond Dogs is one of my favourite shorts, although longer than most.

Oh, I'm not forgetting Andy, I just meant the two most recent collections. And yeah, DD is a great story and a worthy-though-slightly-irrelevant addition to the Revelation Space universe.

Just read Act I: The Twilight War and Act II: Communion of the Broken Sky series by Chris Wooding. Okay, they're not as brilliant as some of his more recent books, but they're still really good. Very original ideas and storylines, teamed with interesting characters and his fantastic flair for describing something in perfect detail without over-doing it - classic Wooding.

Act II ended on an evil cliffhanger, which has left me willing April to come around very quickly so I can buy the final part.

I believe though that it introduces Dr Trintigant and then removes him again, who appears in Grafenwalder's Bestiary. Anyway yes, it is irrelevant to the main story arc.

What Happens Now? - Jeremy Dyson
Shfts between the 80's and "now". A story of how one shocking event in their youth has impacted on each of the two main character's adult life. Not the jolliest of books.

Now reading The Joke's Over: Memories Of Hunter S Thompson by Ralph Steadman


Just bought:
On Chesil Beach by Ian Mc Ewan
Apples by Richard Milward
The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters by G W Dahlquist

I have those on order, so I'll be reading them soon - I recently read The Prefect which, while good, had something missing I felt. Not sure what, exactly...

I'm a couple of hundred pages into Fallen Dragon at the moment - interesting, and very good.

I very much enjoyed it. Touches of 'Atonement' and 'What a Carve Up!', which are two of my favourite books ever.

Oh I did too. I particularly loved the 80's nostalgia in there. I liked both the main characters a lot, so found the ending a bit of a downer.

Let me know what you think when you finish it. I feel it gets lost in among his other bigger works but is actually a really good story. I must read it again actually.

I'd have to say Banks is still my favourite contemporary sci-fi author, but I'm not that widely read! (hence my question above!).

Thanks for the replies all!

It's probably his weakest book so far, and felt a bit like filler to me. Not very much happens for the length of the thing; it seemed more like an opportunity to talk about the Glitter Band and flesh out that society, but it could have been a short story in the Galactic North collection.

That sounds about right - you put it much better than I...didn't.

Anybody remember these books by Stewart Cowley at all?

I've only just been reminded recently of them myself.

I think you may be safe - unless it unexpectedly goes down the pan like Starter for Ten. I'm about 60 pages in and enjoying it quite a lot! It's really weird reading something that was written right at the beginning of the internet, when e-mail was new and Microsoft hadn't yet conquered all with Windows 95.

Windows 3.1 was pretty widespread though wasn't it? I guess at that point they hadn't got into the habit of bundling everything and tying it all together to quite the same degree though. I remember pre 3.1 there were a few other GUIs for the operating system, but they all died a death. XTree was one I remember using at some point.

That's one of the things I love the most about re-reading it now. It's such a neat perspective.

Glad you're enjoying it!

It was, but it wasn't as all conquering as later versions of Windows.

I believe OS2(? - or IBM at least) was still a major player at that point (1993, when the novel is set) and it was the launch of '95 that really kicked off Micro$oft's domination of the marketplace (I don't think it wasn't until Windows '98 that they started bundling everything (i.e. IE) into the one package).



I am, I read another 40 odd pages in the pub this evening! (I stopped in for a pint or two n my way home!).

Just bought Tim Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories. Cute, in a disturbing sort of way.

I love The Pin Cushion Queen.

Ah yes. Good stuff. That's the kind of Burton I like, really.

Finished Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh last night and it was a thoroughly hilarious read. Very witty and nicely decadent.

Just finished 'A Family Daughter' by Maile Maloy. Very nice. Review here.

I've gone for The Reality Dysfunction, as they didn't have Pandora's Star in my local Waterstones.

I also picked up a copy of Slaughterhouse 5 at the same time, which I may read first.

It's been ages since I've read any Haruki Murakami and, since I've got two or three of his books lying unopened on my shelf, I decided to crack open Dance, Dance, Dance. I'm about a third of the way through so far and, whilst it's not as philosophical or downright strange as much of his more recent stuff, it's still a great, well-paced read with plenty of odd happenings, ruminations of life and a fairly interesting detective/mysetry aspect to it.

My favourite used/rare/antiquarian bookstore is currently in the process of closing its doors -- though they'll continue on the Internet, in a limited capacity -- and is selling everything at half-price, so I picked up a cheap, readable copy of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" the other day. By the look of things, it must be at least 100 years old, though I've not looked at the publishing info yet.

They've got quite the selection of vintage film posters, too, for all manner of trashy 60s sci-fi and 80s slasher flicks.

I wish they weren't shutting down, but I suppose it was inevitable. Few people even knew of their existence, as they were tucked away below ground, in the basement of an office building.

That's what always happens. I've been to quite a few bookstore closing sales. It's good that they are still selling on the internet, but that's not really the best way to buy books, is it?

The new Culture novel, Matter, is just £11 at Play at the moment.

Guess what I just ordered.

Tis £9.50 in Waterstones, I picked up my copy on Saturday!

I might have to detour on the way home and pick that bad boy up. Almost through the Algebraist now and then I will have re-read his whole 'M' bibliography. Just in time for the new one. Hvaing re-read them all, I have to say Excession is my favourite.

Alastair Reynold fans may be interested to know that his short story 'The Sledge-maker's Daughter' (shortlisted for the 2007 BSFA Awards) is available online here. (It's all above board - the website is run by the publisher of Interzone, the magazine it appeared in.)

Finished this last night and it was excellent. A sensuous and beguiling detective story-cum-midlife crisis which had me gripped from beginning to end. A bit more conventional than Murakami usually is but still a great read.

I'm now reading The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis, which is shaping up rather nicely already.

Just started on Joe Haldermans Forever War. Too early to draw conclusions yet but seems like a good 'un at this stage. I bought the Omnibus Peace and War which includes Forever Peace and Forever Free as well.

THE JOKE'S OVER - MEMORIES OF HUNTER S THOMPSON by Ralph Steadman

Steadman's memories of his 30 odd years working with, and being a freind of, Thompson. It's interesting to read about their escapades (sadly Steadman wasn't there for Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas) before they go through the booze and drug fuelled Gonzo filter, and there can't be many biographers out there who knew what HST was really like at work, rest and play.
Hunter S Thompson comes across as a bit of an arse at times, a bit deranged, hilarious, passionate, intelligent and above all a one-off. The book also features a lot of Steadman's brilliant art work.

A Life In Six Words

Brilliant - in celebration of the 7th anniversary of his blog, Gaiman's running a poll amongst eight of his books; the winner will be made available completely FREE of charge online by Harper Collins for a month.

American Gods is far ahead of the pack at the moment...

Wow, what a cool coincidence; my friend was just asking me the other day if I had any of his books that I could lend her. I can direct her towards this link now.

Thanks!

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides

Tells the story of historic raid on Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines at the end of WWII by the US Army Rangers & Alamo Scouts.

There is some background of the Bataan Death March, but most of the story is about the preparation & execution of the raid as told by the men that were there. This book was actually getting hard to read because of the graphic detail of the atrocities that the Japanese inflicted on the Allied soldiers.

Just finished this and it was absolutely marvelous. As someone who has had a lifelong interest in, though no discernible skill at, chess, I was intrigued as to how a book which is based largely at chess tournaments could make the game exciting and it really succeeded. The novel charts the rise of a female chess prodigy in 50s and 60s America. As well as detailing her professional progression as a player, it also describes her sexual awakening and the effect that the pressure her status has on her, eventually driving her to drink and drugs.

A really terrific book that easily ranks up with Walter Tevis' better known books, The Hustler and The Man Who Fell To Earth. If you can find it, give it a read. It's really amazing.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Not sure where to begin. So much crammed into so few pages. The last six or so were quite heartbreaking, and had me going through a whole self-assessment of my own life. Left me on a downer, but glad I read it.