The Mars Trilogy (And other book suggestions)

So I started reading Red Mars, as a suggestion by Patrick, who I think in turn got the suggestion from Matthew. I'm only 100-some pages in, but so far it's really grabbed my attention. It definitely seems like it will be a good book, and trilogy.

I thought I would throw out a suggestion myself, if anyone is interested in a short, great sci-fi book.

Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilhelm

I just finished this not too long ago, and I have to admit I was really, really digging it. It won the Hugo award in '76.

Anyway, if anyone has any great sci-fi suggestions, I'm always open to ideas. Let them flow!

Well I am just about to finish up A Game of Thrones so I'm looking for a new book to read here pretty soon. I actually think I might re read Exile that Drizzt book, for some reason all sorts of different things in D&D keep reminding me of that and I remember loving that book.

RED MARS!!! Zac, that (and its sequels) are my favorite books of all time. They're a hard sell, though, because they are so long. I hope you like them.

I read the Song of Ice and Fire series a couple of years ago, which is another one of them massive fantasy series. Four books, out of a projected seven, are currently out, and I've been rereading them to get ready for vol. 5 coming out this September. The first one, as Patrick mentioned, is Game of Thrones, which is amazing. Somehow the second book, Clash of Kings, manages to be twice as good.

That's not really sci-fi, though, so....

The last few sci-fi books I've come across have been mostly lemons, either kind of bleh or actually bad. The last really good one that I read was Thirteen by Richard Morgan, all with sociopaths, genetic engineering, sexy cops, badasses, and a country called "Jesusland." Check it out.

So in the spirit of Zac's massive Facebook list, here's some general suggestions and guidelines:

• House of Leaves is mind-blowing. Patrick will back me up on this one. Even if you decide you don't like it two hours into the beginning, give it a shot, because it might rock your socks.

• Dune is one of the best books ever. Children and Messiah are pretty awesome, though not as good. After that it's steady downhill. Chapterhouse probably not even worth reading.

• I thought Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was brilliant. Basically a cross between classic Faerie Tales and Charles Dickens. If 19th century British literature irritates you, this probably will too.

• Dark Side of the Earth? I've never heard of that one. What's it about?

• The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, is amazing. One of the best war novels I've ever read. The associated titles, Forever Peace (which is totally unrelated) and Forever Free (which is related, barely, by having the same main character), pretty good, though not even close to the original.

• Read the original Foundation trilogy, because every science fiction fan should. I'd like to heard what you think.

• I thought Stranger in a Strange Land was too long and too full of weird hippy bullshit. Could just be me. I was much more a fan of either Starship Troopers or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

• Cryptonomicon rocked my world. Not as sci-fi as most of his other books, it takes place largely in the present or very-near future, and in fact a big chunk takes place during WWII. But really really brilliant. I haven't read the Baroque trilogy because the page count intimidates me.

• Sadly, you've already read all the really great Bester books. Golem100 is interesting, but not any better than Computer Connection. His short story collection (Virtual Unrealities) is definitely worth reading, though.

• I'm a big fan of the planet Mars, so I've read a lot of fiction involving it. Most has been rather disappointing. Moving Mars was ok; Man Plus was interesting but left me without strong feelings one way or the other. Definitely DO NOT read anything by Ben Bova, especially Mars, as it is easily one of the five worst books I have ever read. Haven't read Rainbow Mars yet, though it's on my list. Let me know how it is.

• You should probably check out something by Philip K. Dick. Not for everyone's taste, but he's at least worth a try. His most famous is A Scanner Darkly, which is even weirder than most of his stuff, so I don't recommend it as a starting point. I also don't recommend Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? if you have even seen Blade Runner, as you will be unable to avoid comparisons between the two (despite their being extremely different). My recommendations would be either The Man in the High Castle (which is kind of alternate-history-ish) or Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (which I don't really know how to describe).

• If you are even marginally interested in comic books, then we should talk about Warren Ellis.

That's all I got for now.

Just to derail this a bit (mostly because in general I'm not a fan of Sci-fi anything, or comic books.) ...

While reading the last bulleted point above, this cracked me up, "...Dick. Not for everyone's taste, but ... at least worth a try."

Lolol Wow.....nice find?

short post because I do like the idea of book talk and what not...

All i have to say as of my lunch hour right now is Starship Troopers was an awful book.

That is all

In response to what has been posted:

First off Matthew, all the books you see on my facebook that I want to read, are books that I own, and want to read. The books that I want to read, that I don't own yet, are on a separate list. I do that because I go to bookmans a lot, and I only like to buy used books, so that I can collect trilogies/prequals/series in complete for very cheap, and then read the whole deal in one sitting. That is what I am doing with the Mars Trilogy, I probably spend a total of $5.00 on all three books, so that when I finish the first one I can jump right to the second one, and so on. So, in reference to the books that you suggested I read, I actually already have them on my list, like the Philip K Dick books for example.
I found that using the wiki site to review past Hugo and Nebula award winners and nominees was a great way to find new books and authors. Most of the books on my list are Hugo winning authors.

House of Leaves looks awesome, and I can't wait to read it. However, I read a lot at school, and I don't want to toss that nice book into my backpack and possibly ruin it. So I have to find a good time where I'm not in school to sit down and read it.

Dark Side of the Earth are short stories written by Alfred Bester, I bought it before I knew about the Unrealities book, which I also got later. It has only a few short stories, but all of which in my opinion are awesome. I think they are all also included in the Unrealities book.

I liked Starship Troopers, however it is so completely different than the movie I don't even know why they named it such. It wasn't the greatest book, but I appreciate it for what it is.

I'm slowly collecting all the Foundation books. I think I am only missing one Foundation, and two Galaxy books. I think at this point I have all of them ready to go. That will be a huge undertaking for me, since I think it's like 15 novels.

I don't have any Ben Bova, because I've never personally read any great reviews about him. However, I do notice there are always a shit-ton of his books at bookmans.

Recent books that I've read that are not listed:

Where Sweet The Late Birds Sang, which is what I first brought up in this topic, is awesome. I was totally hooked. It's not a long read, I just love the imagery of the situation. It's not even that original from todays standpoint, but if you look at it from the time it was written, you'll appreciate it more.

The Hitchhiker Series is actually pretty funny. I laughed outloud at the zaniness of it several times.

The Computer Connection was waaaaay to strange for me. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when I read it, because I love Alfred Bester's other work so much.

[i[Gateway[/i] by Pohl was really cool. I like how the chapters alternate the story telling and eventually come to a conclusion together. I have collected the 2nd two books from this series, I'm only missing the last book. When I find that one, I'll read the rest of the series.

As far as comic books go, I've tried to get into them before, but to no avail. I would be willing to try reading one, as long as it is considered extremely top notch. In other words, I'm not in the mindset to experiment with anything too different.

Starship, Fuckin' Troopers, man

Vhale Arkhan wrote:

All i have to say as of my lunch hour right now is Starship Troopers was an awful book.

What's wrong with Starship Troopers? I thought that book was really good. Also, to my knowledge, that man invented the very concept of powered armor.

Also, for fans of the Hitchiker's Guide books, Pratchett's fantasy Discworld books are more or less the same style of humor.

Quote :

Also, for fans of the Hitchiker's Guide books, Pratchett's fantasy Discworld books are more or less the same style of humor.

Those books are awesome. All the rest of the books listed here are crap, mostly becasue of my pedjudice against anything sci-fi. If I read them, I might like some of them, but I won't because I already decided I don't like them.

HUh that's funny troy to blanketly dislike an entire genre that is usually so closely associated with fantasy. Oh well, to each their own. I've always wanted to read the hitchhiker books.. I even have the trilogy of septology sitting on my bookcase here but I've never gotten around to it! Oh well. I will get there someday

Matthew, I hated starship troopers because I felt like I was reading this guys book that he wrote for like a class assignment or something. Something about his writing just made me repeatedly stop reading and say outloud to myself "wow, this writing is terrible" I've never thought that before, I guess something about it just didn't click with me...

Also, NPH wasn't in the book so that is an automatic fail right there (Neil Patrick Harris for all you non-Harold and Kumar fans)

One book I have to wholeheartedly recommend is House of Leaves, and for the benefit of troy it is absolutely NOT sci-fi. It is more like a suspense/horror/what the fuck is up with this book!

And to Zac, so far I have not been a fan of comic books either, something about it just doesn't do it for me even though i usually love the stories. I bought this Watchmen graphic novel though and when I got it I was surprised because I knew it had a lot of hype around it but it turns out it won a Hugo award and is on Time Magazine's list of 100 greatest novels. So that seemed like pretty high praise. I suppose if you were going to try and get into it (like I am ) this would be the book to try it with.

I suppose I should make an attempt to get into the Watchmen, since when it comes out I'm sure we'll all go see it.

I'll dedicate myself to reading House of Leaves after I finish the Mars Trilogy.

I randomly saw a blog today that someone was complaining about movie sequels, and series that they needed to stop making. Apparently there are 2 more fucking Starship Trooper movies. I mean one more would be bad, but Jesus a third? I might actually have to get these to watch them... and throw my shit at the TV.

uhh, they arleady did make a straight to SCI FI CHANNEL starship troopers 2 I'm pretty sure

Kyden wrote:

Apparently there are 2 more fucking Starship Trooper movies. I mean one more would be bad, but Jesus a third? I might actually have to get these to watch them... and throw my shit at the TV.

Vhale Arkhan wrote:

uhh, they arleady did make a straight to SCI FI CHANNEL starship troopers 2 I'm pretty sure.

Ya, they did at least one movie as part of Sci-Fi's weekly B-movie suckfest. There is at least a third, and possibly more, that were released straight to DVD, so it seems like that shouldn't even count. For what it's worth, I heard about an animated series some years ago that got good reviews, but never really cared enough to watch it. As far as I'm concerned, unless it involves super-elite badasses in giant negative-feedback logarithmically-amplified powered armor, it's not fucking Starship Troopers.

Vhale Arkhan wrote:

Matthew, I hated starship troopers because I felt like I was reading this guys book that he wrote for like a class assignment or something. Something about his writing just made me repeatedly stop reading and say outloud to myself "wow, this writing is terrible"

Yeah, he's no Shakespeare. To be honest, most science fiction writing--"writing" as in the quality of the actual prose--before 1980 simply sucked ass. It was pulp fiction, and most of the guys were more into ideas than into literature. Asimov is a really good example. He deserves credit for some of the most awe-inspiring ideas in the history of science fiction, but his actual books are terrible. Foundation, for example, is basically three conversations that take place entirely in tiny rooms between two people, during which they talk about all the really exciting things occurring around them. The "plot" is really really cool, but the way that he presents it is pretty much retarded. So, take that for what it is. Heinlein is the same, I think, though somewhat better than Asimov. To really enjoy the old stuff you have to let the writing slide and focus on the stories and the ideas. (And if you can't, or prefer not to, I wouldn't blame you as a reader, because some of the stuff can be vomitously awful.)

Kyden wrote:

As far as comic books go, I've tried to get into them before, but to no avail. I would be willing to try reading one, as long as it is considered extremely top notch. In other words, I'm not in the mindset to experiment with anything too different.

I don't know why comic books are such a hard sell for people. I would recommend that you nerds go check out the World of Warcraft comic book which is being released as a trade paperback, except that it really is quite terrible and you would probably yell at me. So don't read it.

For science fiction fans, you should become acquainted with Warren Ellis. He has a novel out called Crooked Little Vein that is something like what would have emerged if Chuck Pahlaniuk had written the screenplay for National Treasure. I thought it was pretty hilarious, but Ellis' really amazing stuff is all in graphic novel format. For science fiction fans:

• Ministry of Space is an alternate history about what might have happened if Britain had gotten Werner Von Braun and his rocket team during WWII instead of the U.S. Very short, only something like 60 pages, so if you hate it it'll be over quickly.

• Transmetropolitan is a crazy fucked-up story about a journalist in the future that is pretty much 1/3 Futurama, 1/3 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1/3 Ray Bradbury at his dreamiest, and 100% oddball awesome. It involves political assassinations and futuristic firearms called "bowel disruptors." However, it is a 70-issue series, so it's rather lengthy. One of my favorite comics of all time, and hilarious enough to make you poop your pants and make milk squirt out of your anus. At the same time. That can happen in the future.

There's others, but those are the best. Aside from Watchmen, of course, which you must all read before the movie comes out, or else I will burn your houses down.

I think that is why I like a lot of these older novels, because it's not about the writing, more about the idea. And as I said earlier, you can't compare it to works that are out today, because some ideas have been trampled on and raped over and over.

But, if you read a novel knowing that at the time it was revolutionary, it kind of takes on a new element. At least for me it does.

That's not to say I don't enjoy new books as well. Stephenson writes some amazing shit. Randomly, I think Troy would enjoy Snow Crash or The Diamond Age.

Assuming he wanted to get into that dreadful category of Sci-Fi

I on the other hand have a had a hard time getting into Fantasy. I haven't read many, I always tried tackling Robert Jordan novels when I was younger, and they were always too much for me. If you have any other suggestion for as far as Fantasy goes I would be much appreciative.

I just wrote out a whole response and then got an error message when I went to post it. I fucking hate it when that happens, because all the writing just dissipates into the digital nether. Anyhoo, the gist was this:

As far as fantasy goes, I prefer the newer breed of author, who tends towards grittier, more violent, and more realistic novels than older "epic" fantasy writers. The Song of Ice and Fire series has already been mentioned. One of my favorites is Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself. His characters are vivid, flawed, and believable, his dialogue is snappy and memorable, his fight scenes are brutal and kinetic. Blade Itself is one of the better books I've read in the last few years.

Also high on my list are Winterbirth, The Lies of Locke Lamora, and The Name of the Wind, but as I haven't read them yet I can't really speak one way or the other.

Perhaps more of a longshot is The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard of Conan the Barbarian fame. It's about a badass motherfucker Puritan who walks the earth righting wrongs and kicking ass. That's right, Puritan, as in shoebuckles and Thanksgiving. Imdb says that it's being made into a movie pretty soon.

that's why I always copy my responses before i post/send them. Because that has happened to me in emails too and it is fucking annoying