digital_lorax Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Finally got around to reading Bester's The Demolished Man. A good read, though I think I was too built up by the general review of it being one of the best.sci-fi novels.evar. and was let down a little. But I do understand why it is one of the classics of sci-fi. I also recently read Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Mieville. Described as 'weird urban british fantasy', they are also good reads. Some good ideas worth stealing for games inside of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I liked it as well. Along with American Gods and Neverwhere. Which needs a better budgeted film adaptation. I haven't read Neverwhere, but it's been recommended to me. I'll have to track it down through the library, or something. Maybe a used bookstore . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I haven't read Neverwhere' date=' but it's been recommended to me. I'll have to track it down through the library, or something. Maybe a used bookstore . . .[/quote'] Neverwhere is still in print, so you can find it in any bookstore. Personally, I want to read Anzasi Boys now. Also, Smoke and Mirrors is a good collection of shorter stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Neverwhere is still in print' date=' so you can find it in any bookstore. Personally, I want to read Anzasi Boys now. Also, Smoke and Mirrors is a good collection of shorter stories.[/quote'] Well, yes, I'm sure you can, but I'm quite poor, you see. I liked Anansi Boys (I borrowed it from a friend), though it's definitely a different story from American Gods. I completely missed a very prominent feature of most of the characters, though. Gaiman only bothers to describe people's skin color if they're white in that book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Well, yes, I'm sure you can, but I'm quite poor, you see. I liked Anansi Boys (I borrowed it from a friend), though it's definitely a different story from American Gods. I completely missed a very prominent feature of most of the characters, though. Gaiman only bothers to describe people's skin color if they're white in that book. Ah... okay. Yes, well... getteth thee to a library! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Desmarais Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I haven't read Neverwhere' date=' but it's been recommended to me. I'll have to track it down through the library, or something. Maybe a used bookstore . . .[/quote'] Neverwhere was fun - in a dark kind of way. Highly recommended. If you have the opportunity, watch the BBC miniseries the book was based on (Gaiman wrote the script for the series than adapted it to a novel). The BBC show has the same problem all BBC SF/Fantasy has - low budget and made to quickly, but the story still comes through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Yeah, I prefer to read the book before seeing the movie or miniseries of TV series based on the book whenever I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Yeah' date=' I prefer to read the book before seeing the movie or miniseries of TV series based on the book whenever I can.[/quote'] The miniseries came first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Really? Hm. Interesting to know. I might watch that first, then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Really? Hm. Interesting to know. I might watch that first' date=' then.[/quote'] Neverwhere started as a script for a BBC series, then was expanded into a novel. Also, Gamien has made noises about a prequel/sequel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... He gets a half-succubus chasing after him and getting jealous while other drow girls also seem to fall for him. That's bizarre considering Drow culture.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell where magic having been absent from England for some time suddenly returns and two magicians are the main practioners. It is sent in the early 19th Century and goes from post Trafalgar to post Waterloo. I liked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Yeah, I liked that one, too, though I really felt like it could've been trimmed down, in places. She was obviously trying to emulate a style, and did a wonderful job of it, but I hate that style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 10, 2006 Report Share Posted August 10, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished Last Call by Tim Powers. Chance based magic, Arthurian legends, and the ghost of Bugsy Siegal made a nice mix. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I second Pup's recommendation of Velocity. The hero's turn to vigilantism is believable considering his past and the nature of what's going on in the story. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just read Kushiel's Chosen, which is the second book in the series. For the first half, I continued to hate the main character. Then, thanks to a deus ex machina, she gets a much-needed smack upside the head, realizes what a horrible person she's been, and comes to her senses. Luckily, her disappearance also gave her love interest a much-needed smack upside the head, and he got over himself, too. I was relieved, because it was looking like the author was going to make them right for each other by making the reader not wish their particular brand of idiocy on anyone else. In other words, it ended well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished Olympos, the sequel to Dan Simmons' Ilium. Trojans, Greek Gods, and sentient robots. It was fantastic. The best SF/fantasy thing I've read since Perdido Street Station. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just completed The Watch on the Rhein, by John Ringo and Tom Kratman. I found it very interesting, both as a straight actioner and because of the philosophies espoused, which can be stated basically as "Stereotypes have no merit; everyone is an individual, with their own reasons for their actions" and "Survival trumps all else." It's the interaction and conflict of those two philosophies that drives a lot of the conflict in the book. The book is part of the Posleen Saga. The German Chancellor, knowing that his nation is going to be overrun by the Posleen hordes within five years, is forced to decide whether to use alien technology to rejuvenate ALL of the available old men who were once soldiers - including those who were members of the Waffen-SS... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted August 27, 2006 Report Share Posted August 27, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished reading Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore. It's set in a fantasy-type world where settlers were dropped on a planet with a LOT of natural disasters. Several abandoned the world, and those left behind had to start from scratch, with these natural disasters regularly wiping out villages. Then, certain people, called Sources, evolve to be able to dissipate the natural energy that causes these events. However, the stress usually kills them. Then along come Shields, who are able to protect Sources from these energies. The protagonist is a just-graduated Shield who wants a nice, quiet life, but is paired with a Shield with a reputation for being really good at his job, and really, really well-liked. She starts off disliking him, and is given more reason to do so when they're sent to the most disaster-prone city on the continent. Then some unnatural events start happening in that city, and someone targets her Source. I liked the book, mostly because the characters were vibrant, interesting, REAL people in the situations they'd been stuck in, and the world itself was built quite well. It made me ponder how one would build it as a roleplaying world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted August 28, 2006 Report Share Posted August 28, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just re-read Scion of Cyador, from L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s Saga of Recluse series. Good interesting book, a sequel to an earlier book, and overall one of the earliest in the series chronologically, when the world had not formed a complete fantasy setting yet. The last vestiges of technology (left by advanced colonists) that support a empire founded on those settlers' philisophical priciples are failing, and the Empire is in turmoil as a result. I like this whole series, and reccomend it. These early ones have a very "Age of Empires meets fantasy Europe" feel. I enjoy how the various story arcs are set invarious eras, and how those who weild the "magic" forces of order and chaos develop different cultures through the years, with varying levels of technology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished the Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. The protagonist Thursday Next lives in a parlallel earth and is one of the only people immune to the powers of the evil Acheron Hades. Fun but you have to know your literature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Haven't done one of these in a while. Read Other Times Than Peace by David Drake. This is a collection of stories published elsewhere. The God Machine by Thomas Sniegoski- Hellboy versus a leftover angel who wants to destroy the world. The Wolves of Calla by Stephen King- Shades of the Magnificent Seven. I have read the earlier books but I blotted Wastelands out of my mind for some reason. I am a little wary of self insertions which is hinted at in this book as the gunslingers decide to defend a town from childnapping Wolves. Reading Iron Council by China Mieville with 3 days of never by Tim Powers on deck after that. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Wolves of Calla by Stephen King- Shades of the Magnificent Seven. I have read the earlier books but I blotted Wastelands out of my mind for some reason. I am a little wary of self insertions which is hinted at in this book as the gunslingers decide to defend a town from childnapping Wolves. I see.... well... uhm... then you might not care for what comes next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Not finished with it yet, but the Avram Davidson Treasury is pretty cool. Weird, off-the-wall stuff. One story features the American Dental Association as the bulwark standing between humanity and an alien invasion. "My Boyfriend's Name is Jello" has potential for a modern paranormal type game as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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