What book are you reading...
- Thread starter agnes
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I'm looking for advice on a good 'beginner' book. I'm 38 but never got into reading although I can sit for hours reading technical articles online.
I'm interested in most subjects so don't mind anything as long as it's an easy read with plenty to keep my mind entertained.
Any recommendations would be a great help
I'm interested in most subjects so don't mind anything as long as it's an easy read with plenty to keep my mind entertained.
Any recommendations would be a great help
Just finished Walter Jon Williams "Knight Moves", but I found it a little slow and old fashioned.
I'm halfway through one of his other books "Aristoi", which started slow but has really grabbed me from about a quarter of the way through. Apparently it's a bit of a SF classic, but the original formatting hasn't translated to e-books, so they've done away with it and gone for something more standard.
I'm halfway through one of his other books "Aristoi", which started slow but has really grabbed me from about a quarter of the way through. Apparently it's a bit of a SF classic, but the original formatting hasn't translated to e-books, so they've done away with it and gone for something more standard.
Soldato
I'm looking for advice on a good 'beginner' book. I'm 38 but never got into reading although I can sit for hours reading technical articles online.
I'm interested in most subjects so don't mind anything as long as it's an easy read with plenty to keep my mind entertained.
Any recommendations would be a great help
Saying you like technical stuff and if you like a bit of toungue in cheek comedy which is exciting could try the Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. Read it a short while ago and it's a great read.
I'm looking for advice on a good 'beginner' book. I'm 38 but never got into reading although I can sit for hours reading technical articles online.
I'm interested in most subjects so don't mind anything as long as it's an easy read with plenty to keep my mind entertained.
Any recommendations would be a great help
This will be along the lines of converting you to the SF side. I've found these to all be real page turners that get you hooked, and then bend your mind a bit while you think about new ideas.
Larry Niven's "Ringworld"
Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon", "Fallen Angels", or if you want a more contemporary setting, "Market Forces" or "Black Man" (was called "Thirteen" in the US).
Peter F Hamilton's first books, starting with "Mindstar Rising".
Neal Asher's Spatterjay books, starting with "The Skinner".
Charles Stross "Singularity Sky" and "The Atrocity Archives".
Iain M Banks "The Player Of Games".
Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, starting with "Storm Front".
Jack McDevitt's "A Talent For War"
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Top Recomendations.
Only thing I would change on the list is the Peter Hamilton choice to Reality Dysfuction as part of the Nights Dawn trilogy but that's probably just personal preference.
The problem with Night's Dawn is that it's a monster. A thousand pages with the same from the two sequels, and some of it is quite slow. There are dozens of characters, some of which you follow for several chapters and then never see again. It's the sort of thing that can put people off reading altogether, so not what I would recommend for a beginner.
The Mindstar books are much snappier, without a spread out narrative from dozens of viewpoints. They are also less fantastic, being set closer in time and place to the now, making them easier to connect to both the setting and characters.
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I know but I love nights dawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
The nice thing about Mindstar Rising is that it's a standalone book, with two sequels. The Reality Dysfunction is just the start of the story. To get the whole of the Night's Dawn story, it's nearly three thousand pages including the two other books. It's just one huge story, and it's too much to recommend as a beginner's book.
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Soldato
Two other books?
To be fair I don't PFH apart from the Nights Dawn. Tried other books and found them poor/tedious at best.
To be fair I don't PFH apart from the Nights Dawn. Tried other books and found them poor/tedious at best.
Thanks for all the recommendations
I'm off to Waterstones on Saturday so will pick a couple of them up
Good luck with that! I find Waterstones don't do a very good range of SF books. I think they've given up on specialist sections because they can't compete with the online stores who sell the same thing at a cheaper price. You might get lucky as most of what I listed is popular/mainstream.
I go in there most weekends with a mate who's into 1000+ page novels (which is why I didn't ask him for advice!) and agree that the SF section has got much smaller over the last few years.
I'll take a look but if it's not there I'll order from the rain forest
I go in there most weekends with a mate who's into 1000+ page novels (which is why I didn't ask him for advice!) and agree that the SF section has got much smaller over the last few years.
I'll take a look but if it's not there I'll order from the rain forest
The problem is the sort of people that read SF are the people most happy to buy from online stores, or to go totally to e-readers and electronic delivery. As bookshops sell less SF, they shrink their sections down, have no people that know about it, and prefer to give the space over to selling vampire porn to fifteen year old girls.
If you ever get a chance to get to a specialist book store like Forbidden Planet, it's a lovely experience for the SF reader, even if it's just a one-off visit.
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Sorry I thought you meant 2 more as in Addition to the trilogy
The Void series of books does take place in the same universe a bit later in the timeline, and does features some of the same characters. It is also three monster volumes of a thousand pages each.
It's not quite the same though, as the story alternates with the modern, Commonwealth characters and universe, and an alternate timeline in a pocket/alternate universe where instead of technology, society is pretty much based around mental/psionic powers. If you want a hard SF story, these fantasy-esqe parts will annoy you.
There are also several short stories set in the same Commonwealth universe, and a standalone book "Misspent Youth" that is well before the Night's Dawn books.
There are apparently two new Commonwealth books coming, set between the Night's Dawn and Void trilogies:
Wikipedia said:
I do like Hamilton, but I feel he's faded a bit in recent years, or maybe been eclipsed by the likes of Richard Morgan. Hamilton does a lot of two dimensional characters (he's especially bad at women), and does resort to deus ex machina far too often to pull a quick wrap-up of the end of the story.
His recent book "Great North Road" was very clever in places, but it was also slow, poorly paced, with a cliched ending and twist that was obvious from a mile away. It seemed that the first three quarters of the book was nothing but a long setup for the last quarter, which was rushed.
Hamilton's earlier, shorter books like the Mindstar series shows a sharpness and pace that seem to have been lost as he's indulged himself with ever longer novels.
+1 to the Night's Dawn trilogy from me. Yes, it's huge .... but it's simply epic and utterly amazing.
With respect to Hamilton's later books, I agree he's lost a bit of an edge. Or perhaps, it's just that his writing has matured ? He is certainly not as misogynistic as he once was.
With respect to Hamilton's later books, I agree he's lost a bit of an edge. Or perhaps, it's just that his writing has matured ? He is certainly not as misogynistic as he once was.
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Onto the new Aaronovitch book. Started better than the last which was distinctly average.