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[nullBolt]

What've you all been reading in the genre of "speculative fiction"?

I just finished the new Mistborn and wew that was a fucking wild ride. Seriously, I think Brandon is really honing his craft but I guess that's what happens when you write this many books.

[~Neri]

The mistborn series is honestly probably my favorite series period.

* Kevak rarely, if ever, picks favorites.

[10ebbor10]

Going to mention the obvious Red/Blue/Green Mars triology.

[Antioch]

It's been a while since I read it but I REALLY liked "A deepness in the sky" by Vernor Vinge.

It's about 2 opposing expeditions to a planet from which humanity first picked up radio waves made by intelligent life.

[TempAcc]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ah yes, Schismatrix, finished that quite a while ago. Its not really your regular sci fi story, it feels more like a super futuristic action movie at times. Protagonist is a bit of a james bond type, I guess, but it has a really interesting setting. Post space age humanity has several colonies around the solar system with lot of social and economic problems going on. Eventualy, due to a strange twist of fate, manking makes contact with aliens for the first time. The plot encompasses a period of several hundred years through which the main character and others change quite a bit (and survive through life extension). The book has a huge hardon for transhumanism, and several examples are seen in the book, including cyborgs, mind uploading, heavy biological modification (to the point one of the characters eventualy becomes a room that has sex with things, then a building/ship that births children) and other such stuff.

[Vilanat]

I liked the Old Man's War series if you're into military sci fi with a tad of politics injected into it.

Star Maker is also a nice quasi philosophical/spiritual sci fi book i recently read and liked.

[Flying Dice]

It's been a while since I read it but I REALLY liked "A deepness in the sky" by Vernor Vinge.

It's about 2 opposing expeditions to a planet from which humanity first picked up radio waves made by intelligent life.

Vernor Vinge is one of a bare handful of my true general recommendations. If you enjoy speculative fiction of any sort, you're committing a grave crime against yourself if you don't read everything he writes. He's one of the few truly original and creative writers of our time.

As for myself: Still have Wise Man's Fear and Slow Regard of Silent Things sitting on my desk with bookmarks early on. I need to get back to those. There's another recommendation: Rothfuss is one of the only good new fantasy authors out there. Read that shit too.

I've also gotten partway through Made to Kill, a sort of blending of the stylings of Asimov's robot stories with classic gumshoe yarns, written by one Adam Christoper. Also rereading Hell's Gate again in the fruitless hope that Evans and Weber will return to the latter's one series that isn't entirely painful bullshit and soapboxing.

[RedKing]

I liked the Old Man's War series if you're into military sci fi with a tad of politics injected into it.

Star Maker is also a nice quasi philosophical/spiritual sci fi book i recently read and liked.

Yeah, I've enjoyed Scalzi's stuff.

My votes are always for the Dune series (for those who like politics/sociology with a little sci-fi injected in it) and The Forever War (Haldeman).

Haven't read anything new recently.

[nullBolt]

Larry Coreia's Son of the Black Sword is good and I absolutely hated Monster Hunter International.

I will forever recommend R. Scott Bakker, though. Prince of Nothing is one of the greatest unread fantasy series in the world.

[mainiac]

My votes are always for the Dune series

The first one is IMHO the best sci novel out there but I find it hard to recommend the series past that point.

[IronyOwl]

As for myself: Still have Wise Man's Fear and Slow Regard of Silent Things sitting on my desk with bookmarks early on. I need to get back to those. There's another recommendation: Rothfuss is one of the only good new fantasy authors out there. Read that shit too.

Man, I'm trying to get through The Name of the Wind and the wank is seriously dragging on me. They roped me in with stone spider demons and the recommendations of everyone I've ever heard had read it, and now it's some edgy anime-haired legendary hero pontificating about his illustrious childhood against the backdrop of his current despair, pet bishie, and despair. It's making it rather difficult to continue.

Larry Coreia's Son of the Black Sword is good and I absolutely hated Monster Hunter International.

Read a few chapters of that. Seems neat so far, but after the above fiasco I've been hesitant to commit to anything new.

I will forever recommend R. Scott Bakker, though. Prince of Nothing is one of the greatest unread fantasy series in the world.

Man, speaking of fiasco, wank, fiascos, wank, wank, wank, wank, and endless fucking wank, I couldn't bring myself to read anything past the first book. Which is an absolute goddamned shame, because the world is absolutely fucking brilliant and demented as all fucking hell, and while it's a little dark ("the ocean is a little wet") I absolutely want to read more about the magical adventures of corpsefucking rape angels and the hallucinating butchers of God's work who oppose them.

Unfortunately somebody thought it would really improve that story to include a poorly justified Sue of fairly mythic levels, thereby foiling my efforts to enjoy how awesome every other single thing in the book is. I swear it's like reading a bad fanfic blended right into the amazing source material.

[Tack]

The mistborn series is honestly probably my favorite series period.

* Kevak rarely, if ever, picks favorites.

I have only read the Stormlight Archives and Warbreaker.
Mistborn any good comparitively?

[nullBolt]

I will forever recommend R. Scott Bakker, though. Prince of Nothing is one of the greatest unread fantasy series in the world.

Man, speaking of fiasco, wank, fiascos, wank, wank, wank, wank, and endless fucking wank, I couldn't bring myself to read anything past the first book. Which is an absolute goddamned shame, because the world is absolutely fucking brilliant and demented as all fucking hell, and while it's a little dark ("the ocean is a little wet") I absolutely want to read more about the magical adventures of corpsefucking rape angels and the hallucinating butchers of God's work who oppose them.

Unfortunately somebody thought it would really improve that story to include a poorly justified Sue of fairly mythic levels, thereby foiling my efforts to enjoy how awesome every other single thing in the book is. I swear it's like reading a bad fanfic blended right into the amazing source material.

Jesus, man, you should've kept it up because...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kellhus is a bad guy. Not one of the bad guys, but a bad guy.

Seriously, he's a deconstruction of a Sue, like the rest of the book is a deconstruction of fantasy. He's the perfect Ubermensch, especially when compared to little dumpy Achamian, and yet he's an insufferable cunt. He's manipulative, controlling and destroys everything that everyone else holds dear so he can have it instead.

Read past the first book.

Also, have you read Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy? If you have, then reading the first book of Prince of Nothing is like reading the first book of that and not carrying on. You don't get to see...

Spoiler: JA First Law Spoilers (click to show/hide)

The whole plot of the books turn out to be a pathetic spat between two equally cruel and evil wizards.

The mistborn series is honestly probably my favorite series period.

* Kevak rarely, if ever, picks favorites.

I have only read the Stormlight Archives and Warbreaker.
Mistborn any good comparitively?

I think Stormlight is marginally better but at least Mistborn is finished and won't take the rest of Brandon Sanderson's life.

[Flying Dice]

As for myself: Still have Wise Man's Fear and Slow Regard of Silent Things sitting on my desk with bookmarks early on. I need to get back to those. There's another recommendation: Rothfuss is one of the only good new fantasy authors out there. Read that shit too.

Man, I'm trying to get through The Name of the Wind and the wank is seriously dragging on me. They roped me in with stone spider demons and the recommendations of everyone I've ever heard had read it, and now it's some edgy anime-haired legendary hero pontificating about his illustrious childhood against the backdrop of his current despair, pet bishie, and despair. It's making it rather difficult to continue.

How far in are you? Because the main thrust of things is that he kept fucking up and making bad decisions over and over, and only managed to slide by because of the largely undeserved kindness of others. The technique used, of him relating events from his perspective, helps highlight the difference between even his better moments versus the behavior and feats we see without the lens of his perceptions and the fog of time, in which he is not only scarcely more capable than ordinary people but also ultimately unwilling to put what power he does have to use, instead electing to hide himself away from the world.

It's in many respects a deconstruction of the traditional path of the fantasy hero and the mythos of the same, though I'll avoid mentioning all the specifics for the sake of avoiding spoilers. It reveals through his narration the sheer amount of coincidence, luck, and screwing up behind the perfect larger-than-life facade of commonly circulated rumors and stories.

[nullBolt]

How far in are you? Because the main thrust of things is that he kept fucking up and making bad decisions over and over, and only managed to slide by because of the largely undeserved kindness of others. The technique used, of him relating events from his perspective, helps highlight the difference between even his better moments versus the behavior and feats we see without the lens of his perceptions and the fog of time, in which he is not only scarcely more capable than ordinary people but also ultimately unwilling to put what power he does have to use, instead electing to hide himself away from the world.

It's in many respects a deconstruction of the traditional path of the fantasy hero and the mythos of the same, though I'll avoid mentioning all the specifics for the sake of avoiding spoilers. It reveals through his narration the sheer amount of coincidence, luck, and screwing up behind the perfect larger-than-life facade of commonly circulated rumors and stories.

Rothfuss is really very, very slow with writing, though. He's GRRM levels of slow. God knows how he feeds himself.