Space opera

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I love a good space opera.

Here's who I've read already:

Isaac Asimov
Iain M Banks
Peter F Hamilton
Alistair Reynolds
Dan Simmons
James Blish
Larry Niven

I've not read Vernor Vinge, but I plan to soon.

Suggestions?

― Wooden (Wooden), Monday, 30 August 2004 00:38 (twenty-one years ago)

E.E. Smith's Lensman series. They're so bad, they're totally classic.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Monday, 30 August 2004 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars trilogy. Delicioso.

― artie, Monday, 30 August 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Joe Haldeman's Forever War series

― Lt. Kingfish Del Pickles (Kingfish), Monday, 30 August 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I just bought "Nova" by Samuel Delaney. I probably could have picked it up for 50 cents at a used store, but I'm a sucker for those slick-looking reissues.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 30 August 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Aniara An Epic of Space Flight in 2038 AD by Karl-Birger Blomdahl

― (Jon L), Monday, 30 August 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

ooh! ooh! samuel delaney and aniara! my nerdsense is tingling!!!

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Monday, 30 August 2004 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

iain m. banks books are like crack to me

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 30 August 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

> iain m. banks books are like crack to me

have just re-read consider phlebus and didn't really enjoy it the second time, seemed a bit lumpen somehow.

followed that with the alistair reynolds novellas. i like his stuff (and the way that all the covers match) and the fact he named one of them after an echo and the bunnymen lyric. new one in october btw.

― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

the fact he named one of them after an echo and the bunnymen lyric

"Cu-Cu-Cucumber"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Alistair Reynolds quite a bit. His prose is above average for the genre, his plotting's tight, and I like how his books are quite dark. He's certainly better than Hamilton, who can't even use full stops properly as far as I can tell.

Funnily enough, Koogs, I enjoyed Phlebas a lot more the second time. The last section in the tunnels is fantasic, and I'd forgotten all about the weird cannibals on that island.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

the last section i actually think is the weakest!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

shows to go ya i guess.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The thing I love about the final section is it's a dark as fuck denoument to what was basically a jolly space romp. The change in tone works incredibly well for me.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah i know what you mean, i just think it's weirdly-paced or something.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I need to read more Iain M Banks. I've read most of his Iain Banks fiction, but for some reason the only M. books in my local library are the non-Culture ones.

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

culture ones are the funnest.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Feersum Enjinn and Against a Dark Backgound are both pretty good. I personally think Banks is much better as a sci-fi writer than a mainstream one.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't understand Feersum Endjinn until the whole plot-exposition bit at the end; but I was skipping most of the txt-spk chapters, which probably didn't help.

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

> I was skipping most of the txt-spk

i don't blame you - they took twice as much time to read as the others. that said, they were kind of funny. the bloke was speaking in txt-spk, as you say, but then he'd meet a bird with a lisp and he'd render the lisp in txt-spk also (making it even harder to read). at one point he had two characters with different speech impediments going at the same time, on top of the txt-spk.

have read all the M novels and prefer the culture ones. unfortunately the next one to re-read chronologically is at Home so that'll have to wait until after christmas. (CP isn't very Cultural, i feel, as it's focused on an Idiran)

i had forgotten EVERYTHING about CP in the 15 years since last reading it, didn't recognise a single thing, even something as monumental as the train crash.

I like Reynolds' made-up religions and the details that go around them (the stained glass window so dark that the picture could only be made out during nuclear blasts), the deification of Sky whatsisname (which reminds me of the religion that sprung up in Miracleman and the associated pseudo-crucifixes), stuff like that.

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

S.L. Viehl "Blade Dancer" was pretty fun.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 07:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I love made up religions and shit like that.

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

What, like Catholicism? ;-)

― _chrissie (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

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