guys let's keep this alive whaddya say?
i've been reading a fair bit of sci-fi and fantasy this year. if you have any suggestions, let me know. some of my recent favourites below
ken liu - the paper menagerie and other stories
loved it! some are magical realism, some are sci-fi, most are excellent. the "paper menagerie" story proper is beautifully written, i admit i almost cried at the ending. that particular story can be read legally and for free here:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5958919/read-ken ... asy-awards ken liu - the grace of kings
fantasy world, battles, intrigue, fight for power. super fun. no magic, but there are gods and they do intervene, but most of the plot is still driven by normal people.
on the other hand, the tone is too much like a fable, characters are clearly good or clearly evil, no ambiguity or conflict, and the hero never gets betrayed, at most only misunderstood.
still, for grabbig a medieval-ish world and introducing techonological progress right in the story, it already does something that most fantasy books completely fail to even acknowledge (song of ice and fire, i'm looking at you).
the sequel, "the wall of storms", unfortunately showcases many of the worst habits Ken Liu showed in grace of kings, and it gets rather annoying. characters make you scream at the book like you'd scream at a horror movie character opening a door when they're obviously going to die. still, i'll keep reading the series
adam roberts - the thing itself
fantastic stuff.
Quote:
You can’t see behind space, or beyond time. Everything you think and feel and perceive happens in those terms. It turns out there is something in the real reality, outside of our minds, something our minds perceive in terms of space and time. The thing itself, whatever it is, isn’t metres and kilometres, seconds and hours. Not that. It’s a mode of – amplitude – of a different kind. We look at the universe and see that it is vast, and that spatial vastness reflects something important about the thing in itself. It’s not a literal mapping from its spatial scale to our sense of space, though.
will definitely read more from him.
peter watts - blindsight
a meditation on the nature of consciousness and intelligence disguised as a story about a group of humans in a "first contact" mission to meet some aliens. will probably also read the sequel, Echopraxia.
i also finished the seventh book in the Prince of Nothing/Aspect-Emperor series, as recommended back in the dark ages by Brahm K. i loved the first 3 (The Prince of Nothing series), the last 4 frankly i could have done without reading. will likely be skipping the next series which i think the guy has planned. but guys, definitely do read The Prince of Nothing. fantasy but with lots of philosophy, excellent writing, incredibly characters, and a magic system that seems like it could almost be real.
i also wanted to point out some disappointments because ugh:
Cixin Liu's "three body" series. the first book was ok, the second was bad, will not bother with the third. no idea what people see in here. characters acting like fucking idiots, lots of conversations that read like speeches, and the whole "dream girl" thing in the second book was beyond fucking retarded.
patrick rothfuss's "the name of the wind" also sucked. the protagonist is a master of chemistry, magic, and combat, and is a skilled actor and musician to boot. has several ladies chasing him and is a prodigy who sails through school. no, i don't want a book about an average joe, but having flaws actually makes characters more interesting, no?