Bookish Musings

Anslem

So while we're not posting on the forums about how no game can compare to the memories we had in "X" or how anxious we are for the alpha and then release of "Y," who's a reader?  I can not imagine it's unrealistic to imagine those of us who read like the sci-fi/fantasy stuff.  

I have to say - if you're a sci-fi/fantasy reader you absolutely have to read Scott Lynch's "The Lies of Locke Lamora."  While this will likely sound sickeningly familiar, I was having a difficult time finding a series/book to devour after reading "A Song of Ice and Fire." Then I found Lynch's books.   

I was seriously just reading and writing Game of Thrones fanfiction until I found this series.  

So good. 

Who else reads stuff other than forums?

Laserwolf

I believe most of us here are pretty heavy readers actually, and I know I always look forward to it at night immediately before going to sleep. I'm actually glad you posted this because I kind of stumbled upon a book I'm reading right now that I really wanted to recommend  here and just hadn't got around to it.

I believe it's only available right now as an e-book on Kindle for $0.99 because it was self published, but it's honestly some of the best "Sci-Fi" I've read in years. It's called The Martian by Andy Weir, and it's one of those rare Science Fiction books that's more heavy on the Science than the Fiction. It's about an Astronaut on the 3rd Manned Mars Mission in the near future who finds himself left for dead and abandoned on the planet after a sudden storm hits the mission's landing site just a few days after they've landed on the surface.

The story takes place in chapters that are set up like daily logs and chronicles the stranded astronaught's attempt at trying to figure out how he can survive four 4 years until the next manned mission on rations and with equiment meant to only last 6 people 30 days. One of the best and most surprising things about the story is actually how funny it is and how much of a page-turner it is. The novel is fairly long but each "log" makes for a somewhat short chapter and sort of sets up the next one making it hard to just stop reading at the end one.

The last thing I'd point out, and this is actually something I'd consider a big selling point personally, is that the writing can be somewhat technical at times. Sometimes the writer goes into a lot of detail about exactly the protagonist is able to create Oxygen by using chemical reactions to break down compounds into their separate elements, or how he plans on creating water through other chemical reactions. I know this kind of thing sounds boring on the surface but it actually came across as extremely interesting and even educational.

Absolutely worth $7 and a no-brainer at 99 cents.

 

Jemcrystal

I read about drow, wizards, and elves.  NOT LOTR.  Used to read about romance vamps but since the dawn of Twilight that has become a byword.  I DON'T READ WHAT'S POPULAR to the masses.  I hated Thrones.  It bored me to death.  I watched HP but I'll never read it.  

I like Drizzt - he slices things up.

I like the Dresden Files - he burns things.

Laserwolf

I'm sort of surprised to find how nearly impossible it is to find fantasy or science fiction books that appeal to me. I've very rarely found myself without a book queue in the last dozen or so years but now I'm thumbing through the sci-fi and fantasy section of my Amazon Kindle bookstore nearly every night just looking for something that stands out. The moment I read the synopsis about Dralenor the elf, or the mystical dragons of yadda yadaa(usually the first sentence in) I move on. It's so hard to find something that feels original or even somewhat serious.

For some reason I've found myself reading a novel about an upper-class, but not well off, widow living in late 1880s San Francisco trying to solve the murder of a wealthy gentleman while falling in love with his lawyer nephew. How the hell did this happen?

 

At least I can be somewhat helpful for other still looking for good Sci-Fi. A few recent novels I found myself enjoying before my slump were the Coyote Series by Allen Steele about the first settlers on a new planet and their development over a few centuries. I think it was a 4-5 book series. I also really like the Wool Series (Best to buy the whole thing at once in the Omnibus) and the Molly Fyde series from Hugh Howey. The Molly Fyde series seems to be a children's series but it's not, and I really enjoyed the characters and overall story. He also wrote a good one called Half Way Home which is sort of like a Sci-Version of The Lord of the Flies but set on another planet instead of an island. I thought it was really clever and quite fun to read.

Oh, and sort of along the same vein as the Martian book I referenced above, there is a pretty cool series by Nathan Lowell called the Solar Clipper series. It's like a futuristic version of what it would have been like to be part of a trader vessel's crew in 1600-1900s. Basically the main character is just some random crewman who isn't a commander or a captain but just a grunt working his way from planet to planet aboard a massive ship where you read about his day to day life. The first book is called Quarter Share and the next Half Share because as he spends more time on the ship and gets promoted higher up his share of the overall profit increases (similar to the ways these things used to work on ocean-going ships). Actually, this is one I might just revisit. I really enjoyed it and I bet the third one must be out by now.