What SF book are you currently reading? (2015-16)

Discussion in 'Science Fiction' started by TomTB, Apr 24, 2015.

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  1. Royce Sears

    Royce Sears Well-Known Member

    Fantastic! Would love to hear what you think of it when you're finished.
  2. Diziet Sma

    Diziet Sma Administrator Staff Member

    Just bought it too!
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  3. MorteTorment

    MorteTorment Regular Member

    What a weird concept to combine with being trapped in a game.

    Anyways, abou to start the most recent cyberpunk release, Sinless 1: Necrotech. Not sure whether it's fantasy or sci-fi yet, and so if i don't talk about it anymore here, you know why.
  4. TomTB

    TomTB Administrator Staff Member

    I don't see why. The 80s saw the birth (more or less) of the modern gaming revolution, so it makes perfect sense.
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  5. MorteTorment

    MorteTorment Regular Member

    Wait! It's 80's gaming? So like there's a lot of references to NES titles. Ok, suddenly I'm more interested!

    Anyways, I read SINless 1: Necrotech for 70 minutes. Real quite slow actually, but I don't regret it because I retained so much,a nd this really is good! 5 out of 5 so far.

    So, here's what's happened so far

    So the main character is a SINless runner, and she wakes up in a place which I really didn't understand, and she's in the buff, all of her cyberware being deactivated, not sure where she is, or what's happened to her. She gets caught by some corp cops, but she kills em and escapes, along the way she finds her girlfriend who is dying, and about go necro which I assume means undead, like a zombie or something, so Nanji has to take her out. She gets taken in by the police, and the person who interrogates her, she tries to take advantage of his homophobia, hoping that he'll get close enough to hit her so she can attack back and escape, but he's full muscle and just beats the crap out of her, but another cop shows up and stops her. It turns out to be someone that she once dated, and he helps her escape. She heads back home, and reflects on what's happened, how she needs to repay the cop for the favor, and how she's gonna tell her dead girlfriend's brother how things happened witout him flipping out on her...if she can manage to peel herself off of her bed after all of this.

    Edit: I forgot to say this before. Last time I read 16% of the book, read 4 chapters, and I read 64 pages.

    This time I read for 45 minutes. Read 13% more of of the book, or 52 pages, for a total of 116 pages, and I've read up to chapter 8 That's still pretty slow, but it is however at least a page a minute, so I'm happy with that, and I know that I build up speed as I go along. Well that and this is not a fast read.

    I'm a little tired, so my memory is gonna be kinda bad here, but here goes.

    Ok, so Riko(main character) finally gets up, and talks to the cop that helped her get out. He asked her to do...help him become a runner I hink, soe that would give him some cash, because he's going through a divorce, and he wants to make enough to support his daughter, and Riko tells him to fuck off, telling him that she doesn't owe him anything, but reality is that she thinks that since he's a cop, he's not gonna know how to lie, which is a pretty necessary tool for a runner.

    Later she goes to his dead girlfriends brother's bar, and gets inot a fight(seriously, everywhere she turns she gets into a fight. I think this is the most battle heavy book I've ever read!) She talks to her...I think the dead girlfriend is named Nanji, and he's really pissed off, blaming Riko because he talked her into getting a spinal cord upgrade which turned out to be necrotech.

    She leaves and heads near this popular bar and gets in yet ANOTHER fight with the cops, and it looks like she's gonna lose this fight too. Way to remind us that the main character is vulnerable book, well done! And man, this really is cyberPUNK! emphasis on PUNK!

    Edit: as for some non spoiler details that I like.

    The book doesn't let you forget that the main character may be powerful, but she's not invincible! She's very vulnerable, and she seems to lose a lot of fights.

    Also, this might be the most battle heavy book I've ever read. It's like every other chapter someone is trying to kill or main Riko. It really shows you how bad things are for her.

    And finally, this book doesn't let you forget that this book really is cyberPUNK. Giant emphasis on PUNK! Riko flat out admits that she's a thug, loves killing people that piss her off, and swears like 20,000 sailors. And yet there's so many little things that make you like her, and want to succesd! She kinda reminds me of Tony Soprano.
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2016
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  6. Boreas

    Boreas n log(log n) Staff Member

    Yes, I feel the same way. Hamilton has some really great ideas and excellent plots, but man he can be a slog to read. I've skimmed a lot in his books. I read your review and I'm the opposite when it comes to Ozzie's Silfen story arc. I thought that was the most pointless arc of them all and I was bored stiff reading it. Okay, I did like the little alien they picked up, but that's about it. Definitely agree that the Starflyer conspiracy was good, it kept my interest all the way through. This book didn't start to get really interesting for me until the introduction of MLM. Those chapters or sections were serious page turners for me. I get your reluctance not to continue, and while I'm not exactly a Hamilton fan boy, I think it might be worth it to finish the story with Judas Unchained. While most of Pandora's Star was just one long set up, JU is one long resolution and does have things happening at a faster pace. Well, this is still PFH's 'faster' and JU is another doorstopper. And I still found Ozzie's Silfen journey boring and pointless up till the very end when it finally became more interesting for me, if still pointless. But if you decide not to go on, no big loss. Read Neal Asher's Polity books instead.
  7. MorteTorment

    MorteTorment Regular Member

    Read some more of SINless 1: Necrotech. read for about 35 minutes just now, and I read one chapter over 15 minutes last night. combining both times, I read for 50 minutes, and I covered 14% of the book, and read 56 pages, which still is at least in the page a minute range. There's just so much interesting stuff in the book, and I love how most of it is the main character thinking about situations, and considering her actions.

    The big takeaway that I got from what I last read is that Riko actually isn't usually this eager to get into fights and kill like she's doing, and she realizes that something is wrong with her. My guess is that she has necrotech in her now.

    How's she gonna survive this? Oh better yet, will she actually survive this? A big part of me hopes that she goes out in a blaze of glory!


    Yet again I can't get myself to read for the full 45 minutes. A big part of it is because I'm so damn tired, but I don't want to take a nap because if I do, I'll probably be there for a while like I was yesterday.

    Anyways, so tired that I'm gonna cover this in the simplest way possible.

    25 min: 8% CH 16 32 pages 204/400 51%

    Hopefully I can get some more energy, because I wanna cover more faster. Really don't want this to take 3 days, especially since it's only 400 pages, or as my brain thinks in this case, 80 pages. My brain also thinks that it's only got about 40 pages left.

    Edit 2:

    Finally more awake, yay!

    Read a decent chunk of SINless 1: Necrotech this time, covering 19% more of the book, or 76 more pages, for a total of 280/400 pages, which is good because my brain will tell you that I have 25 pages left! Finishing this today like I hoped, yay!

    Riko find evidence that suggests that Indigo, her dead girlfriends brother might have sold most of his runners out, including her sister. She rushes to his apartment and finds him having sex with someone. She scares the girl that he's with off and makes his accusation, he explains how he actually makesmore money not selling them off, and he has no reason to do what she accuses him of. They then prepare to do a mission, and take out the necrotech hq, and where I'm at, they're in the middle of it.

    Exciting stuff. Gonna go try to finish it now!

    Edit 3: Whohoo! finished the last of the book, and in 50 minutes! Read the last 17%, which was 68 pages long

    Sure read this slowly, but again, I don't regret it because I retained a lot more of it.

    ...I think I'll leave the ending out.

    Anyways, I still desire to read more, so let's what's next on the list....

    Whohoo! The dresden Files! Gonna start it real soon!
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2016
  8. TomTB

    TomTB Administrator Staff Member

    If I manage to keep my eyes open tonight I'll be starting reading Sunset over Abendau by @jo zebedee ... enjoyed the first book so hoping for much of the same. Wondering if jo is going to keep the sadistic levels turned up to the same notch in this one ;)
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  9. jo zebedee

    jo zebedee Well-Known Member

    Whistles. Anyhow - why I was as sadistic as I was in book one in spoilers - so you don't have to look if you don't want to. (But they don't spoil anything of the story of the later books, only book one)

    I don't think what happened to Kare was any worse than what happens to you common-or-garden chosen one - or if it was, it was only marginal. How many of them get picked up and tortured. (I accept the rape was a stage further than most go - and its inclusion was based on research; that is what happens to a male put in that position, since time immoral - because rape is about power and stealing power and is a more well-used tool against men than is often portrayed.) Think of Glotka, for instance, or lots of action heroes. What I hate about that trope, though, is that the hero undergoes all that torment, and then is left largely unchanged, which is often not the case.
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  10. Diziet Sma

    Diziet Sma Administrator Staff Member

    I have finish The Mark of Koban and have really liked it. The story set in Koban, the first book, has taken a great impulse and and unexpected direction. I can only begin to imagine what other twists there will be waiting in the consecutive books. I will definitely continue with this series, however I like mixing things up a little bit, so I have just started J Zebedee's Abendau's Heir. I'm really looking forward to getting into it.
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  11. MorteTorment

    MorteTorment Regular Member

    Oh cool, I'm reading Koban this month!
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  12. Royce Sears

    Royce Sears Well-Known Member

    I'm reading The Enemy of an Enemy and Red Mars currently.

    Red Mars is very hard sci-fi.. very well researched..and unfortunately it is another slogfest.. The hard scifi is nice, but at the same time, there is such a thing as too much detail. *sigh*

    The Enemy of an Enemy is an interesting read so far that I'm catching on my breaks away from writing. (currently at about 60,000 words on a Space Opera) The story has taking an interesting turn into Psionic abilities and multiple character memory blocks...
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  13. TomTB

    TomTB Administrator Staff Member

    I read Red Mars earlier this year. I actually quite enjoyed the hard science parts, I found it intriguing the science behind the colonisation of a planet (no matter how far fetched it might have been). I only lost interest in the book in the final third, when the hard science was left behind and the main story reached its conclusion. Overall I enjoyed it, but still haven't been tempted to pick up the sequels.
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  14. TomTB

    TomTB Administrator Staff Member

    Started listening to the audiobook of The Darwin Elevator by Jason Hough yesterday. The concept of this one is great - alien race comes to Earth, install an elevator (the type we see in countless stories eg Old Mans War, Red Mars) immediately leave, most of the population of Earth then start to die apart from those who are mysteriously immune, and those in the vicinity of the elevator.

    It gets a lot of positive reviews so hopefully it will be more up my street than Blood Meridian was.
  15. kenubrion

    kenubrion Well-Known Member

    Halfway through The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis.
  16. Diziet Sma

    Diziet Sma Administrator Staff Member

    I hate elevators. The concept already gives me the heebie jeebies. I'm curious though...:)
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  17. Diziet Sma

    Diziet Sma Administrator Staff Member

    I'm about 68% of Abendau's Heir by @jo zebedee and I understand now @TomTB's comment regarding the first half. I did enjoy very much the first 7/8 chapters, pretty much up to point when
    Ealy and Karia die.
    Then, there is this section of the story about Kare’s background. I felt it was dragging on a bit. The style felt maybe YA. I still think it was necessary to learn about Kare, to get to know him and understand his behaviour. I liked the fact he isn't portrayed as
    an all powerful, cockie, precocious youngster, but quite the opposite
    Maybe it was a problem with the pace, maybe with the structure, not sure…
    I did enjoy those few chapters in which you let us glimpse the Empress de Vil. I would have personally enjoyed more of those woven into this early part of Kare’s life.
    Anyhow, now the pace and the intensity have changed dramatically and I'm loving it. ;)
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  18. TomTB

    TomTB Administrator Staff Member

    Absolutely loving both books I've got on the go.

    Sunset over Abendau is a fantastic sequel to Abendau's Heir ... a certain character I've gone from really not liking to being really worried about. It's a proper page turner, especially now that a certain 'you know who' has returned.

    About 3/4 of the way through The Darwin Elevator and this is awesome. Imagine The Expanse crossed with The Walking Dead .. I'll definitely be starting the sequel straight away. Brilliantly narrated by Simon Vance too ... the last one of his I listened to was Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay .. he's one of the best for sure.

    I'm in a good reading place :)
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  19. jo zebedee

    jo zebedee Well-Known Member

    @TomTB - you tease. ;) it will kill me wondering who. :)

    I'm nearing the end of my current reads - The Cormoran Strike books - and loath to pick up anything new as my husband is a bookseller (with discount!) so I tend to get a great Christmas reading haul. I might go reread something of Vorkosigan.
  20. jo zebedee

    jo zebedee Well-Known Member

    Sorry - just saw this now. Yes - that's the section that seems to have a problem. Once past that the trilogy blasts along. I have no real answer to it - the section is needed esp for book 3... all suggestions welcome!
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