The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 67

Children of Time from Adrian Tchaikovsky, one of my favorites books ever, on sale for 2.99 on kindle at the moment over on Amazon.

 

Finished The Ferryman by Justin Cronin and was really impressed with how deep and impactful it was. A sci-fi story about human nature, social idealists. A dystopian-driven hierarchy and some real revelations. Highly recommended.

Plan on reading Yukio Mishima next, a short one between novels.

 

Ugh, must be down. That’s on my to read list and it’s 9.99 for me!

 

Damn must must have been a daily deal, its on sale a lllot tho, so keep an eye out. I even got the sequel on sale which is insane because sequels never go on sale

 

The sequel went on sale on Audible the day before I read the first. I should’ve grabbed it.

 

Posted this in the streaming thread, but also relevant here too. I didn't enjoy all 3 books, but loved the first one and from what I recall about the book (pretty hazy though), this looks like it'll capture the first one in story and vibe pretty well.

 

I still need to read that. Seems like now's a good time.

 

The first is short and I think it was a web serial type deal (or at least self published), so its in small chunks. The 2nd and 3rd were written after the first was published and they are longer in length and more traditionally structured. I would say before the show is a good time to read it, as it very much relies on its mystery and reveals, so once you've seen the show and know the story, the book will probably lose some value.

 

Oh yeah, I never watch a show first if there's a book. I think knowing that the first isn't a traditional novel is what's turned me off in the past, but it's really not that big of a hurdle.

 

Oh no. The audible series sale went live.

 

I refuse to like that comment.

 

I got out of it with only one book purchased.

But had like 32 of the books already in my library.

 

I'm on the final book in the First Law trilogy, really loving it

Has anyone read The Three Body Problem? I was going to do the audiobook of that next, but now I'm wondering if I'd be better off reading it. Some books are too descriptive for me to focus on the audio and I need to officially read it

 

Please post your thoughts when finished! I loved first law, but its polarizing when all is said and done.

 

About ten years ago I read The First Law trilogy, Best Served Cold, The Heroes & Red Country all in a row and remember loving all of them. Very fun, exciting reads, great characters, and they felt very fresh and non formulaic for me at the time. I haven't gone any further than that with any of his more recent books though.

 

I don't want to spoil it for Chase but I always saw a lot of love it or hate it posts on reddit fantasy and my wife whom I recommended it to was LOVING it till about the last half of the last book and she still brings it up and shuts me down whenever I try to recommend a new series.

in case you don't remember, the ending is essentially a hard reset and to some, it was offputting like 'why did I read 1,000+ pages to go back to the beginning and have a bunch of characters that learned nothing or got nothing?' I didn't feel that way but it's a common sentiment I've seen expressed.

 

After I finished the trilogy (Chase is reading my books, haha), I had zero desire to spend any more time in the world.

 

I'm extremely hazy on the story details at this point and am overdue for a reread, I just remember really enjoying the idea of the banks / capital / big money being the "evil" so-to-speak that the characters were struggling against as opposed to 'big dark bad guy in a tower somewhere'. But even typing out this post I am struggling to fill in even the broadest story strokes aside from what I just mentioned so I know my memory of it is not good at all - I'm not even sure that's a theme from the trilogy at all haha.

After finishing the trilogy I did want to keep going in the world and enjoyed the following books as well, particularly The Heroes. I thought the whole idea of a book detailing a big battle like that was intriguing and ended up really enjoying it.

 

I enjoyed Abercrombie's writing enough to want to keep going despite stopping after the 1st standalone. Sometimes I just get in reading slumps and things grind to a halt, and that's what happened there and I have yet to revisit.

Abercrombie is like Scott Lynch to me, in that I don't necessarily care too much for the plot, I just enjoy them painting a scene and putting together cool scenes with effortlessly cool dialogue. I barely remember the specifics of the Gentlemen bastards story, but I know that I had a blast with it.

Having said that though, I did like what The First Law trilogy did with the ending and story so it wasn't just the writing style. I found it hard to get annoyed at something that was clearly a theme and intentional point.

I'm currently in a slump so RE the audible sale and everyone's current list - what's something new and fun and relatively breezy? I need something I can bite into and get hooked quickly to get things moving again.

 

I'll always rec this trilogy and it's in the sale:

Lady Astronaut

Not in the sale, but I just read all five of these and had an absolute blast (fantasy litrpg with a lot of scifi):

Dungeon Crawler Carl

 

Whenever I get in a slump like that I like to read a novel that is short-ish and standalone, and sometimes totally out of my usual wheelhouse. Something like Marshlands by Matthew Olshan (164 pages), City of Thieves by David Benioff (258 pages) of Game of Thrones fame/infamy, or The Explorer by James Smythe, which is apparently now the first book in a quintet but was a short standalone novel back when I read it, and was definitely enjoyable as such.

 

Three Body Problem is spectacular. The sequels are even better. It's probably my favorite sci fi series, the only other one that gives me pause is the Hyperion Cycle. It has some of the most mindblowing, original concepts that I still think about on a consistent basis.

I'm not really the person to give you good feedback on whether or not the audiobook route would be preferable since I don't listen to audiobooks and have a very hard time concentrating on them. It is ridiculously descriptive, dense, and complex, so if you find that tough to listen to, reading would definitely be the way to go, because although it's all those things, its still super readable and rewarding.

 

I’m on the second book of the three body trilogy. I’m doing the audio books. They are good so far (I am finding the second more interesting than the first). I have struggled a bit with character names on the audio book since it’s easier for me to visually see names but now it’s clicked!

 

yeah descriptive text is where I struggle with audio. I have to rewind a lot when it's describing scenery or action. It's a lot easier to focus on dialog-heavy books. Like the First Law audiobooks are great, and the characters all have really distinct voices

I've been really looking forward to the trilogy. Have you read any of the author's other works?

 

No, this is my first by the author! I actually like the audiobooks for some of the more descriptive sections. I did it for the wheel of time series too and I kind of think of it like jazz…I just let it wash over me. I won’t understand deep theoretical physics no matter how many times I read it, so I get the gist listening and it moves through quicker!