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/lit/ - Literature

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4217768 No.4217768[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Thoughts?

I want to start a new series that is grand in scope with weird concepts with some gritty science. I'm aware of the culture books but they are largely stand alone.

>> No.4218276

Diaspora.

Grand is an understatement for its scope.

>> No.4218287

>>4218276
>Diaspora.
No, that book sucks. It's 'grand' in the same way that a teenager thinks level 55 wizards are 'grand'.

>> No.4218302

On the whole, I liked them. They certainly had their share of issues but at the end of the day they're very readable, they're definitely grand in scope, they're definitely weird, and they definitely have some hard science, so they're exactly what you're looking for. I really liked some of the characters as well, especially two of the main characters from the first book. The ones after the first, maybe they're a little harder to get into than the first one, but they're still readable.

So, all in all, I'd recommend it.

>> No.4218326

>>4217768
Thoughts on Reynolds/RS series? Revelation Space is great, Chasm City is fantastic, Redemption Ark is decent, Absolution Gap is... meh... and The Prefect is pretty good but different.
I liked them a lot, really hard sci-fi with almost a hint of Judge Dredd to keep things from being too depressing. The standalones and short stories are pretty good too.

The Culture books are excellent, but only loosely related and they're pretty soft and space-opera-y. If you're less bothered about accuracy and more interested in "grittiness" you might want to have a look at the Gap Cycle. For diamond-hard SF you want the Mars Trilogy.

>> No.4218392

Only read the first two books but liked them a lot, Chasm City in particular was great. Haven't touched any later ones yet, seems like the quality drops off a bit as it goes on judging by amazon reviews though.

>> No.4218696

everyone of you shouldread Peter F. Hamilton.
All of his books

>> No.4218764

>>4218696
That's straight-up science fantasy with some terrible characterisation and a truly bullshit plot.
Enjoyable enough, a few decent ideas, but nowhere near good.

>> No.4218770

>>4218764
what is better in your opinion?

>> No.4218775

>>4218770
If you're going down the science-fantasy road the Hyperion Cantos would be a better recommendation.
Doesn't sound like OP wants that though.

>> No.4218914

>>4218764
This is directed squarely at Night's Dawn & Void Trilogy since OP asked about series, btw.
Fallen Dragon was pretty good.

>> No.4219006

>>4218914
>Hyperion Cantos
bought it on audible. hope i dont regret

>> No.4219033

>>4219006
>audiobook
Depends who's doing the reading and if they're any good at it, I suppose. If it doesn't grab you, pirate the text.

>> No.4219455

OP here - I bought Revelation Space on my kindle and after 120 pages in, I'm loving it. Pretty much exactly what I wanted.

Also, I found Hamiltons Nights Dawn trilogy at the second hand book shop around here super cheap.

>> No.4219606

I read the first two and especially Revelation Space was a huge letdown. He's dry and wordy as fuck for no reason whatsoever and the books being "hard sci-fi" seems to boil down to "I won't have FTL because I'm a physicist". Practically all of the technology functions like magic and gets explained away with stuff like "it's by conjoiners and no one else understands how it works".

Autist circlejerk at its worst.

>> No.4219674

>>4219606

The Conjoiner drives, sure, but the rest of the technologies talked about in the book have a sense of verisimilitude due to the lengths of detail he goes to describe them. Is this what you mean about him being wordy?