Enforcer84 Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Winter Witch, Elaine Cunningham (and David Goss, but Elaine get's top billing) (Pathfinder Setting books) I was once a huge Forgotten Realms fan, so color my recommendation accordingly. A wizard school dropout and a barbarian head to the frozen home of Baba Yaga's descendants to rescue the women of their lives, his purloined paramour and her stolen sister. I enjoy the Pathfinder world in all it's freshly painted over generality; the game takes all the stuff from my old D&D days and gives it a different enough take that I find it interesting. The story is pretty engaging, and the characters are likable. And the big antagonist reveal, though as it drew closer I could see it coming, was still entertaining. In fact, I appreciate Cunningham as an author because she generally writes good characters in established settings, what I consider to be my favorite thing to do. Making my own settings is an exercise in self flagellation. Not a bad little over 325 pages and not a bad way to spend a lazy Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Lady Pariah and I just finished The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley on audiobook. I've read it before; she hadn't. We loved it. I want my daughter to read it one day, to see that not all heroines get to marry the prince/king by virtue of having been rescued by him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Winter Witch, Elaine Cunningham (and David Goss, but Elaine get's top billing) (Pathfinder Setting books) I was once a huge Forgotten Realms fan, so color my recommendation accordingly. A wizard school dropout and a barbarian head to the frozen home of Baba Yaga's descendants to rescue the women of their lives, his purloined paramour and her stolen sister. I enjoy the Pathfinder world in all it's freshly painted over generality; the game takes all the stuff from my old D&D days and gives it a different enough take that I find it interesting. The story is pretty engaging, and the characters are likable. And the big antagonist reveal, though as it drew closer I could see it coming, was still entertaining. In fact, I appreciate Cunningham as an author because she generally writes good characters in established settings, what I consider to be my favorite thing to do. Making my own settings is an exercise in self flagellation. Not a bad little over 325 pages and not a bad way to spend a lazy Sunday. I second this opinion, and would add that I consider the first original fiction book Pathfinder/Paizo published, Prince of Wolves, to be even better. And I'd say that even if they didn't have a somewhat-heroic female werewolf as one of the characters. And don't forget to check out their "Planet Stories" line either, reprinting old and long out of print classics in SF and fantasy, with an emphasis on heroic fantasy and sword-and-planet fiction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted March 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... ************************************************************************************************ Today, gentle fantasy readers, George R. R. Martin announced a HARD publishing date for the long awaited fifth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series---A Dance with Dragons. That date is 7-12-2011. Check this link! http://www.georgerrmartin.com/if-update.html ************************************************************************************************* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Let us all now praise RexMundi, who was bang on right in predicting that Dance with Dragons would appear right after the miniseries started. Specifically, between the airing of Seasons 1 and 2, it looks like. Bart: But what's really amazing, is that this is exactly what Dad said would happen. Lisa: Yeah, Dad was right. Homer: I know, kids. I'm scared too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranxerox Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Early last year I put a call here on the board for Fiction resources for Solar HERO, and since then I have been slowly making my way through the suggestions. This seems like a good thread to update people on my progress. On Isaac Asimov's (writing under the name Paul French) Lucky Starr series, five words :The Lone Ranger in Space. If that sounds fun to you then you will probably enjoy this series. Otherwise you might want to give it a pass. Isaac Asimov's Robot series. I read this series as a kid and enjoyed it and was thinking that I would enjoy rereading it. Unfortunately, IMHO it hasn't aged well. It's not just the technology that is stuck in some retro-future 50s limbo, but the characters as well. It's a man's world a women and robots had just better learn to stay in there place in it. I'm not attacking Asimov here. These are just assumptions of the day that unconsciously found there way into the series despite Asimov's frequently using a female protagonist. On the positive side, the logic puzzles revolving around Asimov's laws of robotics were fun, and the laws themselves besides the obedience one were kind of charming. Earthlight by Arther C. Clarke. Despite being written around the same time as Asimov's Robot series, this book does not feel overly dated. Computers in Earthlight don't compare to what we have in real life and the astronomy being done at the lunar observatory is stuff that we have been accomplishing through Hubble, but otherwise his lunar colony seems like it could have come out of a book written just last year. Also his characters seem a lot more like real people than Asimov's characters and for that reason they do not come off as dated. Red Thunder by John Varley. The technology in the this book is so rubbery that it not only bounces but bounces higher than the point it was dropped from. I seriously wonder if the book was meant a tongue in cheek send up of the let's build a space ship in our backyard genre. Still, I have to give Varley credit for Red Thunder's College of the Internet; all classes are online and completely free, and while your degree won't win you much respect it is valid. This is something that could and should happen in the real world. The book while more fantasy than science fiction is an enjoyable, quick read and I recommend it as such. Long Shot for Rosinante by Alexis A. Gilliland. Despite being nominally about a space colony on an asteroid, this book is much more about imagined future politics than about science. However Gilliland's future politics are interesting. Crafty politicians use rabid creationist to attack Hispanic secessionist, AIs have the legal status of corporations, and a civil war is fought both on land and in space. So I recommend this book ( I wasn't able to get my hands on any of the rest of the Rosinante series) as a source of interesting plot hooks and for it's sense of how things really happen behind political closed doors. The manga Planetes by Makoto Yukimura. Despite being about the seemingly unglamorous subject of garbage collection in space this manga spawned its own anime. If American pop culture looked to the future the way Planetes does we might not be destined to history's dustbin. Oh, well. Don't let the fact it is not from here, cause you to miss out on this intelligent, funny and frequently poignant series. It is first rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted March 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished "Emerald Eyes" by Daniel Keyes Moran, book 1 of his Continuing Time Series. I originally read this book when I was in Dallas, sometime during 1988-1990. Funny thing is...I don't remember enjoying it as much the first time I read it. Sure, I liked it well enough to read the two sequels ("The Long Run" and "The Last Dancer") but this time I mainly re-read it because I wanted to read book 2..."The Long Run"...a book I remember as being non-stop action. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself unable to switch books while I was reading "Emerald Eyes" (I normally bounced back and forth between 2-3 books). In fact, it only took me a week and a half to finish it (pretty darn fast for me, as my average is finishing 1 book per month). If you like early cyberpunk with telepathy/thievery, give the first two books of this series a shot. Avoid "The Last Dancer" as it sucks IMHO. I remember being mightily disappointed in that book... EE and LR can be hard to find in paperback, so I was pleased to find them at the fsand.com in EBook format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished "Emerald Eyes" by Daniel Keyes Moran' date=' book 1 of his Continuing Time Series. [/quote'] Is that the one where the protagonist is a genetically engineered tiger-man PI? I read that one years ago. If I recall it was pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Cross Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The last fantasy book I've finished reading was the hardback of Intrigues, the second book in the Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles by Mercedes Lackey. Set between Vanyel's era and Elspeth's time,this series focuses on the story of Mags, an abused orphan who becomes a Herald. Lackey is back on form here, as Mags not only has problems adapting to Collegium life,and his friends problems,but also has to deal with foreign spies, and a dire prophecy by the ForeSeers that seems to implicate Mags in a horrific future crime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted March 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Is that the one where the protagonist is a genetically engineered tiger-man PI? I read that one years ago. If I recall it was pretty good. No, the book you are talking about is probably "Forests of the Night" by S. Andrew Swann (or one of its sequels). I really enjoyed the first two books of that Swann series. "Emerald Eyes" is a book set in the near future where the UN has conquered the United States. I don't want to say much more for fear of spoiling it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... No' date=' the book you are talking about is probably "Forests of the Night" by S. Andrew Swann (or one of its sequels). I really enjoyed the first two books of that Swann series. "Emerald Eyes" is a book set in the near future where the UN has conquered the United States. I don't want to say much more for fear of spoiling it...[/quote'] Oh, yeah, I think you're right. Hm. For some reason Emerald Eyes sounds really familiar. It's possible that I read it a long time ago and completely forgot everything about it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Oh' date=' yeah, I think you're right. Hm. For some reason [i']Emerald Eyes[/i] sounds really familiar. It's possible that I read it a long time ago and completely forgot everything about it.... I have done that with every Agatha Christie book I have ever read except my Harley Quin collection. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Read Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner. Picked it up on a whim. Matt Richter is a guy who does favors for people. He has two major problems with this. The first he is a zombie. The second is his city is a city full of monsters ruled by five master monsters in a plain of gray. His latest favor is to find a stolen crystal that can produce actual sunlight. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Sleepless: a novel by Charlie Huston was the darkest, most depressing thing I've read (not counting some true stories from AP I'd rather forget). And at the same time, one of the most evocative compelling stories I have ever experienced. I'm not able to do it justice -- follow the link to read some proper reviews. But I'll try to give my impression of it: this book is the evil, mortally depressed and criminally insane twin brother to Snow Crash. (And Huston's writing is to Stephenson's what Ledger's joker was to Nicholson's.) It's America gone straight to hell twenty minutes into the future, and the only humor in sight is of the 'gallows' variety. But there isn't much to joke about, even so. World-wide plague, big pharma, black-market drugs, police corruption, online gaming, and the end of the world. It's all too brutal, too serious, and just too damn believable for humor. The powers that be know the end is inevitable -- and all they can do is slow it down, so that maybe the survivors will have something to work with afterwards. The novel is the story of two characters. The doomed moral victor, probably the last 'good cop' in America; and the villain protagonist assassin who's on a collision course with him. I'm not about to spoil what happens when they meet! David Gerrold (writing as Solomon Short) said "There are no happy endings, only hopeful ones." Huston embodies that idea in Sleepless. There's no happiness in sight -- and just a bit of hope at the end. The sheer emotional weight of the rest of the book gave the unlooked-for Hopeful Ending an incredible impact, in my humble opinion. Well worth the read, in the end. The best apocalyptic/noir/police drama/cyberpunk mash-up I've read lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Stonewielder by Ian Esslemont. This is another of the Malazan books but can be read independently of Erikson's stories. However you do need to read Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard to really appreciate it. The Stormriders are back as are a Malazans making an second invasion on the same continent that the Stormriders are attacking. Wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Transition by Ian M Banks. While the premise* is interesting (and would make for an interesting campaign), the story itself was... okay. I read it, liked parts, but didn't find it a keeper. The premise is one of multiple worlds, each an alternate Earth, and of a group of people who can transition between said worlds. There's an organization that polices the worlds, attempting to keep the peace... or are they? What is the intent of said organization and the power plays within form the bulk of the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Transition by Ian M Banks. While the premise* is interesting (and would make for an interesting campaign), the story itself was... okay. I read it, liked parts, but didn't find it a keeper. The premise is one of multiple worlds, each an alternate Earth, and of a group of people who can transition between said worlds. There's an organization that polices the worlds, attempting to keep the peace... or are they? What is the intent of said organization and the power plays within form the bulk of the story. I read this when it came out, and found it pretty much the epitome of anvilicious. Not a bad read, but Banks apparently made no effort to keep his personal opinions out of this one. He followed with another Culture novel: Surface Detail, which was a good addition to the series. Have you got that one yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Read Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez. It's the end of the world as a werewolf and vampire defend a diner from zombies and the machinations of things men were meant to know. I would so love to use zombie cows in a campaign somewhere. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I read this when it came out' date=' and found it pretty much the epitome of anvilicious. Not a bad read, but Banks apparently made no effort to keep his personal opinions out of this one. He followed with another Culture novel: Surface Detail, which was a good addition to the series. Have you got that one yet? Waiting for the softback edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Finished Consider Phlebas the other day. First Culture novel I've read. Maybe I should have started with Player of Games. I found the book impressive, and I loved the depth of the backstory and richness of the universe Banks created, but overall rather depressing ending. Followed that up with River Marked by Patricia Briggs. Very engaging, but "lightweight" if that makes sense. I find this true of Briggs' other urban fantasy (the Mercy Thompson series and Alpha and Omega series, all set in the same world with some overlapping characters). They are fast reads, engaging, some lightweight angst, but little emotional weight. I don't want to disparage her writing, I have found her books page turners and very re-readable, but afterwards I feel a lack of substance. I hadn't really noticed this lack with other entries in the series, until I read this book right after Consider Phlebas, so it was still fresh in my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Followed that up with River Marked by Patricia Briggs. Very engaging' date=' but "lightweight" if that makes sense. I find this true of Briggs' other urban fantasy (the Mercy Thompson series and Alpha and Omega series, all set in the same world with some overlapping characters). They are fast reads, engaging, some lightweight angst, but little emotional weight. I don't want to disparage her writing, I have found her books page turners and very re-readable, but afterwards I feel a lack of substance. I hadn't really noticed this lack with other entries in the series, until I read this book right after Consider Phlebas, so it was still fresh in my mind.[/quote'] I've found the same. I've considered discarding my Mercy Thompson novels because they don't have the same 'weight' as Dresden Files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Read Moon over Soho by Been Aaronovitch. Constable Grant is back investigating jazz musicians that drop dead and a female fiend that gives her dates a love bite they'll always remember. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Hunger Games trilogy. Technically I'm on book3. YA Sci-Fi really. The main character is a very well written teenage girl (I know this because like pretty much every teenage girl I've ever interacted with I want to slap her and tell her to grow up). The story itself is nicely written and paces along quickly, never lets down on the action and interaction for very long, sprinkling backstory neatly within the text as it become important. Like a lot of recent Young Adult novels it is better written than 'adult fiction' on a lot of levels. Partially because the characters - even the bit parts - pop out, partially because there's minimal front loading of the world (the author give pertinent details as things go along, or assume the reader is smart enough to fill in blanks), partially because the combination of those two keeps the pace steady and forward momentum going. Underneath it all, though, it's a pretty standard "dictatorships and war are bad, mmmkay" style message. Which, if you're 15, isn't a bad message to have in a book. Being much older than that the message is simply rehash of novels I've been reading since I was a teenager. But the story is good enough to overlook an idea I've already seen. Pick 'em up (The Hunger Games; Catching Fire; Monckingjay) as they're decent reads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranxerox Posted March 21, 2011 Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Matter one of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. Now, if you have never read on of Mr. Banks' Culture novels you should. It is one of the most innovative and entertaining series out there, and as an added plus each novel is a self-contained story that does not require reading any of the other books of the series to understand. The plot of Matter revolves about a prince from a renaissance/early Victorian level society that is thrust into the hyper technologically advanced universe of the Culture after the murder of his father the king. The story is expertly told and keeps the reader turning the pages and reading one more chapter after they know that they really should get up and do other things. However, even as I was reading and enjoying the story I did get the impression that Iain Banks was painting by the numbers a bit on it. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read but not one of the heavy weights of the series. On a gaming note, for anyone running a sci-fi campaign there is lots of good stuff steal. My favorite addition to the Culture universe from this book are the Morthanveld, a seriously high tech aquatic species. If you have ever what sort of technology tool using aquatics might develop this species is a find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted March 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... ... and as an added plus each novel is a self-contained story that does not require reading any of the other books of the series to understand. Ranxerox, Years ago I read and very much enjoyed "The Player of Games" (book 2 of The Culture series). Recently, I decided to re-read it but decided to start with "Consider Phlebas" (book 1 of the Culture series) instead for continuity's sake. "Consider Phlebas" has the same protagonist as "The Player of Games" and depicts events that happen before PoG. To be perfectly honest, I haven't finished "CP" just yet (stalled out during long, seemingly never ending scene with overly talkative cannibal) but I intend to return to it soon. My question is this...do you still stand behind your advice to read the Culture series in any order? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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