My bad, I forgot how bad Covid still is in the UK. How are vaccinations coming along?
If you were interested in Neal Asher as well, The Skinner is a good one to start with. Amazon is probably the way to go for books. I'm still a bit of a luddite when it comes to buying things online, so I didn't even think of it.
I think we're doing pretty good hopefully the majority of adults will have been vaccinated before the end of the summer.
I'll look into him as well, at this rate i'll have enough entertainment to keep me going through retirement if i ever get that far. I do tend to go the online route for buying stuff these days but i do enjoy going to a book store and discovering new titles (to me) and new releases, I can spend hours at a time deciding what i'm going to pick up!
@MightyDemon82 Well, you're only about ten years or so from the halfway point. Live it up!
Our new President is saying there will be enough vaccine for everybody by the end of May now, but that sounds a bit overoptimistic to me. The news still shows people waiting in long lines only to get rejected and told there is no vaccine available. The whole thing's a mess, but hopefully by the end of summer the world returns to normal and all this ends up in the rearview.
Some of our stores are open here, but when you go in one, all you see are worried eyes peeking out over the tops of masks, and people being too scared to talk to each other. Reading and Gaming are nice and all, but I'll be happy and maybe even a little bit more appreciative to be able to spend more time outdoors.
Dan Simmons wrote a great set of 4 novels I'd recommend to anyone, Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endemyon, Rise of Endemyon.
For big Space Opera with some fantastic futuristic ideas, Peter F. Hamilton is great, maybe a bit wordy, but not in a bad way. His best (or at least my favorite) is probably The Night's Dawn Trilogy: The Reality Disfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God.
If you want a bleak dystopian future world Hugh Howey's Silo Trilogy is awesome. (Wool, Shift, Dust)
These are just a couple that come to mind. I've read so many that I try to steer away from the more generic ones. All books are listed in order. I'd say they are all must reads. Let me know if you need more!
I'll give you some feedback on Revelation Space, but it might be a few months!
@LordSteev Cool, thanks. I looked into Hamilton and read the following on Reddit that put me off;
If you don't want to hear what sounds like a nearly virginal old man awkwardly describe his sexual fantasies about teenaged girls, you are going to really dislike Hamilton.
The rest of their post is actually positive about him but that sounded a bit galling.
@Thrillho Hmm, can't say I remember any scenes quite like that, but I read them a long time ago and was impressed by all of the creative ideas he had. If I had to hold my nose through a couple of awkward Scientist sex scenes, it wouldn't have been the first time, lol.
@LordSteev@Thrillho Haven’t read Hamilton yet (I bought the Night’s Dawn trilogy and one of his standalones Fallen Dragon and just never have gotten around to reading them) and hadn’t heard of Howey (sounds like I need to check him out) but I can endorse the Hyperion books by Simmons. Excellent writer. The constructed world is pretty interesting and the story is good, but what I really enjoy is his writing style. He has a really deep command of the written word without being too gaudy. I read him after Stephen R. Donaldson and found his style a refreshing alternative to Donaldson where I felt like I was reading the Oxford Dictionary half the time.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution Sometimes I read your posts and I'm surprised at how closely we think.
I tried to get into a new Donaldson series after reading some Simmons, (not the hyperion series, something a little newer) and just couldn't get into Donaldson's writing at all. His overuse of adjectives and adverbs sounded somehow egotistical after reading Simmons's masterful smooth prose. I've read some books by writers on writing, and to a man, all of the ones I respect subscribe to an 'occam's razor' approach. Say what you want to say in as few words as possible. Every time you use an adjective or adverb, according to them, you are being lazy. You're better off using a new sentence if the adverb was so important to you. (Not: Mary was extremely pretty. Rather: Mary was pretty. John's heart raced just looking at her.)
Have you read much Simmons besides Hyperion? He wrote a horror book, can't remember the name, but it was about, well, sort of vampires but not really. They could suck your energy and you'd age prematurely so they could fuel their superhuman capers. One of my favorites. I've even read his crime fiction, though it's not my preferred genre, and I've enjoyed everything I've ever read by him. His range is amazing. Crime fiction, historical fiction, horror, sci-fi, and even fantasy with the Greek gods on the moon or mars (2 book series, it was WILD! based loosely (very) on Homer's Odyssey.) He's probably one of my five favorite authors.
Based on what I know of you, (not much, admittedly, just words on a web page) I think you'd be a perfect candidate to love Hamilton and the Night's Dawn Trilogy. You've got to be smart to read and appreciate him, more so than the other authors above, but not as much as Stevenson. Also, he might be just as guilty of over-verbosity as Donaldson, but I really don't mind it with him. He's trying to articulate some mind-blowing concepts at times, and it feels more like he's challenging himself.
Look into Howey if you can. His style is easy to read and yet not 'simple'. What I like most about him is just the story. Wool, the first book of the series, has a premise and story that stuck in my mind longer than the next ten books I read. I don't know if you like dystopia, but if you do, it may end up being one of your favorite books.
I read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch recently after hearing good things about him. It was a decent enough read; an interesting central premise that didn’t quite hit the mark for me but was a difficult one to put down. It definitely picked up in the final third though.
@LordSteev Wow, great minds... and all that! Although it’s terrifying to think that there’s another mind out there as twisted as mine, there is comfort in knowing that I’m not a complete outlier.
And that’s an interesting tidbit about writing technique as it relates to adjectives and adverbs. I’ve never made a detailed analysis of why certain writers harmonize with me, but what you say makes a lot of sense. I’ve made plenty of attempts at my own creative writing and I think most of it ends up lousy. If I ever decide to be serious about it I’ll have to look further into some of these important axioms.
I don’t believe I’ve ever read any of Dan Simmons other works. I’ve definitely noticed Carrion Comfort and Olympos on the shelves at the bookstore and/or the digital storefront. Good to know they hold up. I was a little perplexed as to why he jumped genres so much, but I’m glad to hear he’s equally as proficient in all his undertakings.
I did read some excerpts from The Reality Dysfunction and I won’t lie — I was concerned that the composition was a bit inflated and verbose from the small sections I sampled. It didn’t seem on the level of Donaldson or Nathaniel Hawthorne or anything, but it did give me pause. I’m glad to see you still think his books will resonate with me. I got the feeling that his space epics are very cerebral so I feel like I need to give the series the proper time and attention, which I haven’t had much of lately.
Appreciate the recommendations, though! One of these days I’ll have a chance to try them out.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Thrillho Hey! Was Dark Matter the one about traveling to different dimensions, one a house buried in snow, and a lot of talk about Schrodinger's Cat? If so, I read it too, and kinda liked it. I was surprised to find out how young the author was, and I liked it enough that I'd try out his next book. Glad to hear about Hyperion. It's a book I think anyone who reads it would like, but that's just my opinion. Hope you enjoy it!
@Th3solution I've tried many times myself, this writing, and no matter what I've read on the subject I can't keep myself from being too wordy in my own mind when I read it back to myself. Still try every once in a while, but unless it can be good to my own tastes, I'll never share it.
@Thrillho I remember it picked up speed pretty well once it got going, and had me pretty riveted during the second half. It was probably 20-30 books ago, but I remember missing sleep to finish it. Heck, any time I can remember a book after reading so many afterwards, it's a good one in my book!
If you want a fast page-turner that zooms along, I'd throw in a recommendation for a book called Lexicon by Max Barry. I read it around the same time I read Dark Matter, and I remember loosing a lot of sleep to finish it, too.
I'm halfway through The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers. The same author of The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear. Really fun fantasy novels, definitely worth considering.
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