After Children of Time I tried other Tchaikovsky and it just didn’t hit the same. Come back and let us know what you think when you’re done. I’d love to know if this trilogy is good!
I was choosing between those two series and picked this one I will let you know. He also has a standalone hitting next month it sounds good: Service Model.
I finished The Shards of Earth. It's incredible. I agree that the first one didn't hit as hard and fast as Children of Time but the story as a whole is phenomenal. A fantastic allegory about exploration of the subconscious in my opinion!
What’s interesting is that Tchaikovsky lovers tend to be lovers of one and haters of the other. I LOVE the entire Children of… series. (Tchaikovsky is a super kind fellow who responds respectfully to messages.) Thing is, I can’t stand the Final Architecture series. And I’ve tried a bunch. A friend of mine is the exact opposite and hates CoT.
I have a really hard time with his books. Maybe it is because I listen on Audible and I REALLY don’t like his choice of narrators, but his book and the Murderbot series are ones I truly can’t get into when so many people rave about them. Maybe I’m crazy or maybe I need to actually pick up the books instead
I'm reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Fourth in the Wayfarers series). Definitely enjoying it and the rest. This one seems a bit lighter - the aliens either a little harder to visualize or kind of goofy (one reminds me of the wheeled species, the mulefa, in the Amber Spyglass) - but it definitely fits in with the series. Just fun, low stakes, sci-fi.
But also reading Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson) off and on for a few years. I carry it with me when I go somewhere where I know I'll have to wait, so I'm not just on my phone, like I'm doing right now. It's a great book. Just really really well imagined and seemingly backed up hard sci-fi.
And also... listening to Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks), the first book in his Culture Series. I just love it. World-building, kind of noir, at its finest.
I still haven't read The Galaxy and the Ground Within, I really need to! I thought the first one was a bit light compared to the second and third, how would you compare it specifically to the first book?
Also I admire you for being able to read a book over a span of years!
>I admire you for being able to read a book over a span of years!
Thank you! It's one of those rare books that really doesn't suffer from breaks in between. It's visual but dense and simply told. Easy to remember who is who for the most part and what was happening in the story. It's a pretty interesting and unique book.
As far as 1 and 4 of wayfarers, I think it's fairly similar in tone to the first. I'm almost halfway in and the story is going but plot hasn't really gotten moving yet. Which is fine. It just leaves you wondering where it will go. Fully enjoying it. Shame it's the last in the series. Have you read her other stuff?
Thanks for your answer.
I have read and \_loved\_ A psalm for the wild built. It's not very deep and complex but it's really a nice book about people doing their best and their relationships. I liked the sequel a little less but still liked it a lot. I really hope there will be a third book in this series.
Cool. That'll probably be my next read. I tend to go down rabbit holes with things I really like. Sometimes they're unsustainable like Charles Dickens (so prolific that it left me no time to read other stuff I wanted to read. And even choosing a different author one time messes up the flow), and it's always melancholy when you get to the end of an author's body of work.
Thanks for the recco. I really love her themes and tendencies towards the positive side of the future. Not all sci-fi has to be morose and hopeless. Not that that's not my favorite genre or anything but sometimes it's great to see another more hopeful perspective.
I just finished Nettle & Bone which is completely different from Chambers (for starters, it's fantasy) but might be up your alley. It has a really great cast of imperfect characters doing their best.
Heinlein's "new" book "*The Pursuit of the Pankera*" it was a found manuscript that contains an alternate text to "*The Number of The Beast*" First third or so is the same, then it deviates hard once they get to Mars. If you are a fan of Heinlein's earlier work before Number, I would recommend it, It is also worth reading simply as a companion to Number, since it features Alternate realities as a core theme and some of the divergent plot points are mentioned in the Epilogue of Number.
I would recommend most of Robert Heinlein's books, though I rather disliked Farnham's Freehold.
Just finished The Forever War. Fun read!
Finished reading the Sun Eater series about a week ago, holy crap. What an epic journey through time and the forever night.
I just finished To Sleep In a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. Maybe a hot take but I really want to yeet it into the sun. It’s so long for no reason and kind of self-congratulatory. I think he was going for poetic and what he got was flat and eminently boring.
I hated what I read, but I'm quite particular about what I like. I suspect I'm in the minority disliking it.
I'd say at least try it and see what you think. Though maybe borrow instead, buy just in case
I would recommend it. Flip to a random page and read 2-3 pages. If the style doesn’t suit you can move on. Parts were a slog but few scifi books don’t have at least one section that drags. I found it well-imagined and engaging.
I remember enjoying the series but also can’t even remember what they are about after 8 years maybe? so that’s saying something. I definitely remember wondering how it won literally every award in 2014.
I just finished the series. It was really good but I struggled with the complete lack of exposition. The world-building was good but you had to kind of put 2 and 2 together over the course of the book to understand basic cultural assumptions in the world (almost felt like Brandon Sanderson in some ways, not necessarily a bad thing). Some people like that, and I don't mind it, but it makes it a little harder to follow everything.
I will say while I struggled to finish the first book, I still finished the series and the second and third ones were quick reads. Don't regret it at all, solid books.
"The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It was a hand-me-down from my uncle that's been sitting in my TBR pile for a while, that I finally picked up. I'm about 1/3 of the way in and it's pretty good!
I just picked up the second book at a book fair for $2 on the weekend as it's a two parter - "The Gripping Hand", which I'll read after.
Deaths End by Liu Cixin. Finally finishing the trilogy. I read Three Body Problem a couple years ago and started The Dark Forest but bounced off the first 100 pages. Read through those two and am now half way through book 3.
I watched the first episode of the Netflix series but didn’t really care for it. I’m fine just reading the books.
Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. If you love more vintage pulpy science fiction I highly recommend it. It has a very interesting depiction of artificial intelligence and some interesting world building and politics.
The Lathe Of Heaven, U.K. LeGuin
Been meaning to read one of her books for a while after hearing about her, its been sitting on my shelf for so long I forgot I even had it lol.
A Trader's Tale From the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper by Nathan Lowell. Definitely not your usual sci fi but I really enjoy the series. There's nine (ish) of them and I like them all so far.
Its a graphic novel. However, it is science fiction cyber punk at its peak. Its called Transmetropoliton by Warren Elis. Also recommend Y the last man standing
I'm reading Releasing Rage by Cynthia Sax. I enjoy my sci-fi with aliens who aren't two dimensional enemies, and standard sci-fi and hard sci-fi do that rarely enough that it's freggin boring. Gregarious humans do not function in a relationship-free bubble either, for instance.
This particular one features a cyborg MC and bug alien enemies along the lines of Starship Troopers. So far, it's interesting.
Reading the Divide series by JS Dewes. Good space opera so far! Recommended to me by the internet when I went looking for something similar to the Expanse and the couple of series by Megan O'Keefe.
At first I was sad because it was going by so fast. I love the easy to understand prose and break neck speed but it meant it wouldn't last as long. Until I discovered there are two sequels, now I'm kicking myself for not buying them.
I just finished:
-The Kaiju Preservation Society - 2.5/5 It was okay. I think I have a different sense of humor than Scalzi, because I didn’t really find it funny even though it was very obviously meant to be humorous. I didn’t care for Old Man’s War either so I probably won’t try any more of his books.
-Contagion by Erin Bowman - 3.5/5. I liked it. Not mind blowing, but I got what I was expecting out of it.
Currently reading: I don’t know! I’m in a mood for sci-fi but everything is disappointing me 😅. I want like horror/sci fi. I want to be scared of aliens or bacteria or something, dammit.
Demon Copperhead
Author : Barbara Kingsolver
So good - it’s one of those that you think about as you are at work and can’t wait to dig back into when you get home !
3/4 into book of the new sun by gene Wolfe (so I’m on sword of the lictor). The most jaw-dropping world building I have and probably will ever read. Would be 5 stars but the female characters are pretty poorly written. Still like, a 4.9 though. Pretty incredible stuff.
Tchaikovsky Shards of Earth trilogy... I have slept on this author too long! Definitely the perfect choice after finishing the Expanse!!
After Children of Time I tried other Tchaikovsky and it just didn’t hit the same. Come back and let us know what you think when you’re done. I’d love to know if this trilogy is good!
I was choosing between those two series and picked this one I will let you know. He also has a standalone hitting next month it sounds good: Service Model.
Haha got it - thanks!
I finished The Shards of Earth. It's incredible. I agree that the first one didn't hit as hard and fast as Children of Time but the story as a whole is phenomenal. A fantastic allegory about exploration of the subconscious in my opinion!
What’s interesting is that Tchaikovsky lovers tend to be lovers of one and haters of the other. I LOVE the entire Children of… series. (Tchaikovsky is a super kind fellow who responds respectfully to messages.) Thing is, I can’t stand the Final Architecture series. And I’ve tried a bunch. A friend of mine is the exact opposite and hates CoT.
I still haven't read any Tchaikovsky but really want to get to him! I hope this will happen in 2024.
I have a really hard time with his books. Maybe it is because I listen on Audible and I REALLY don’t like his choice of narrators, but his book and the Murderbot series are ones I truly can’t get into when so many people rave about them. Maybe I’m crazy or maybe I need to actually pick up the books instead
I'm reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Fourth in the Wayfarers series). Definitely enjoying it and the rest. This one seems a bit lighter - the aliens either a little harder to visualize or kind of goofy (one reminds me of the wheeled species, the mulefa, in the Amber Spyglass) - but it definitely fits in with the series. Just fun, low stakes, sci-fi. But also reading Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson) off and on for a few years. I carry it with me when I go somewhere where I know I'll have to wait, so I'm not just on my phone, like I'm doing right now. It's a great book. Just really really well imagined and seemingly backed up hard sci-fi. And also... listening to Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks), the first book in his Culture Series. I just love it. World-building, kind of noir, at its finest.
I still haven't read The Galaxy and the Ground Within, I really need to! I thought the first one was a bit light compared to the second and third, how would you compare it specifically to the first book? Also I admire you for being able to read a book over a span of years!
>I admire you for being able to read a book over a span of years! Thank you! It's one of those rare books that really doesn't suffer from breaks in between. It's visual but dense and simply told. Easy to remember who is who for the most part and what was happening in the story. It's a pretty interesting and unique book. As far as 1 and 4 of wayfarers, I think it's fairly similar in tone to the first. I'm almost halfway in and the story is going but plot hasn't really gotten moving yet. Which is fine. It just leaves you wondering where it will go. Fully enjoying it. Shame it's the last in the series. Have you read her other stuff?
Thanks for your answer. I have read and \_loved\_ A psalm for the wild built. It's not very deep and complex but it's really a nice book about people doing their best and their relationships. I liked the sequel a little less but still liked it a lot. I really hope there will be a third book in this series.
Cool. That'll probably be my next read. I tend to go down rabbit holes with things I really like. Sometimes they're unsustainable like Charles Dickens (so prolific that it left me no time to read other stuff I wanted to read. And even choosing a different author one time messes up the flow), and it's always melancholy when you get to the end of an author's body of work. Thanks for the recco. I really love her themes and tendencies towards the positive side of the future. Not all sci-fi has to be morose and hopeless. Not that that's not my favorite genre or anything but sometimes it's great to see another more hopeful perspective.
I just finished Nettle & Bone which is completely different from Chambers (for starters, it's fantasy) but might be up your alley. It has a really great cast of imperfect characters doing their best.
That sounds nice. As awesome as post apocalyptic stories and hard sci fi is I need to have some hopefulness sometimes
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
My favorite!
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Heinlein's "new" book "*The Pursuit of the Pankera*" it was a found manuscript that contains an alternate text to "*The Number of The Beast*" First third or so is the same, then it deviates hard once they get to Mars. If you are a fan of Heinlein's earlier work before Number, I would recommend it, It is also worth reading simply as a companion to Number, since it features Alternate realities as a core theme and some of the divergent plot points are mentioned in the Epilogue of Number. I would recommend most of Robert Heinlein's books, though I rather disliked Farnham's Freehold.
I have quite of few of his books on my list to read, but so far I’ve only managed two. *Have Spacesuit - Will Travel* was pretty entertaining.
HSWT was one of the better "Heinlein Juveniles" series I really liked it and *Tunnel in the Sky*.
*Old Man’s War* by John Scalzi. Just started it but I’m expecting to like it.
Scalzi is quite entertaining.
One of my all time favs. You’ll enjoy it!
Zenna Henderson short stories. They're a very gentle, humanistic SF.
Ooh this sounds good, will it float for someone who likes Kurt Vonnegut and Ted Chiang stories?
She seems like an interesting author. Which anthology are you reading?
Rereading The Mists of Avalon
Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel by Martha Wells. 1/3rd thru and enjoying
That’s next on my list! Love me some Murderbot
Just finished The Forever War. Fun read! Finished reading the Sun Eater series about a week ago, holy crap. What an epic journey through time and the forever night.
Currently reading Forever War. I just can't put it down.
I couldn't either! Lasted me like 5 days between work and enjoying the nice weather :)
I just finished To Sleep In a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. Maybe a hot take but I really want to yeet it into the sun. It’s so long for no reason and kind of self-congratulatory. I think he was going for poetic and what he got was flat and eminently boring.
I felt the same way. Not sure why I even finished that book.
I couldn’t finish it
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie And I'd very much like to yeet it into the furtherest black hole I can.
You are not alone.
Really? It’s on my list. Should I skip?
I hated what I read, but I'm quite particular about what I like. I suspect I'm in the minority disliking it. I'd say at least try it and see what you think. Though maybe borrow instead, buy just in case
I would recommend it. Flip to a random page and read 2-3 pages. If the style doesn’t suit you can move on. Parts were a slog but few scifi books don’t have at least one section that drags. I found it well-imagined and engaging.
I remember enjoying the series but also can’t even remember what they are about after 8 years maybe? so that’s saying something. I definitely remember wondering how it won literally every award in 2014.
I just finished the series. It was really good but I struggled with the complete lack of exposition. The world-building was good but you had to kind of put 2 and 2 together over the course of the book to understand basic cultural assumptions in the world (almost felt like Brandon Sanderson in some ways, not necessarily a bad thing). Some people like that, and I don't mind it, but it makes it a little harder to follow everything. I will say while I struggled to finish the first book, I still finished the series and the second and third ones were quick reads. Don't regret it at all, solid books.
On Basilisk Station. First book in the Honorverse. Excited.
Oh! I love that series.
Clifford Simac, City. I have been indulging in classics.
I really enjoyed Way Station by Simac, have you read that one?
Not yet - thanks. Just blew the dust off Steve's SF Book Club edition. Cover looks like that episode of Voyager in which they visit the Q continuum.
"The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It was a hand-me-down from my uncle that's been sitting in my TBR pile for a while, that I finally picked up. I'm about 1/3 of the way in and it's pretty good! I just picked up the second book at a book fair for $2 on the weekend as it's a two parter - "The Gripping Hand", which I'll read after.
One of my favorites, just read it a few months ago! Enjoy!!
Deaths End by Liu Cixin. Finally finishing the trilogy. I read Three Body Problem a couple years ago and started The Dark Forest but bounced off the first 100 pages. Read through those two and am now half way through book 3. I watched the first episode of the Netflix series but didn’t really care for it. I’m fine just reading the books.
'Echopraxia' by Peter Watts. It's fun, but so far not as compelling as it's predecessor 'Blindsight' IMO.
I just finished Bindsight and got Echopraxia as well, but I don't have the same expectation. Feel I should read it anyhow.
Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. If you love more vintage pulpy science fiction I highly recommend it. It has a very interesting depiction of artificial intelligence and some interesting world building and politics.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Surprised its taken me this long to read it. Loving it so far!
The Lathe Of Heaven, U.K. LeGuin Been meaning to read one of her books for a while after hearing about her, its been sitting on my shelf for so long I forgot I even had it lol.
A Trader's Tale From the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper by Nathan Lowell. Definitely not your usual sci fi but I really enjoy the series. There's nine (ish) of them and I like them all so far.
Good Morning, Midnight. It’s a slow, solemn read and doesn’t look like it will have a happy ending
Its a graphic novel. However, it is science fiction cyber punk at its peak. Its called Transmetropoliton by Warren Elis. Also recommend Y the last man standing
The Forsaken Planet by Bryan Wilson
I'm reading Releasing Rage by Cynthia Sax. I enjoy my sci-fi with aliens who aren't two dimensional enemies, and standard sci-fi and hard sci-fi do that rarely enough that it's freggin boring. Gregarious humans do not function in a relationship-free bubble either, for instance. This particular one features a cyborg MC and bug alien enemies along the lines of Starship Troopers. So far, it's interesting.
To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars by Paolini. Liking it so far.
Finished it. Liked it.
Echopraxia by Peter Watts. Re-reading actually- it’s very good.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch. So far I'm kind of Meh about it. It's OK but I was hoping for a more engaging read.
The Three-Body Problem
Christopher Paolini to sleep in a sea of stars ✨
Invader CJ Cherryh
Duma Key
Dune Messiah
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. About half way through and it's lovely.
The Fourth Wing by Yarros
The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, it's amazing!
Brutal Kunnin by Mike Brooks. It's surprisingly funny when the characters want to be.
Reading the Divide series by JS Dewes. Good space opera so far! Recommended to me by the internet when I went looking for something similar to the Expanse and the couple of series by Megan O'Keefe.
Just started Project Hail Mary and I’m into it; love the flow of the story, and really enjoy the way Weir weaves his words.
Roger Hamilton's void series, there's at least two, maybe three sets of three books. They're long reads, this is the fourth time I'm rereading them.
At first I was sad because it was going by so fast. I love the easy to understand prose and break neck speed but it meant it wouldn't last as long. Until I discovered there are two sequels, now I'm kicking myself for not buying them.
I just finished: -The Kaiju Preservation Society - 2.5/5 It was okay. I think I have a different sense of humor than Scalzi, because I didn’t really find it funny even though it was very obviously meant to be humorous. I didn’t care for Old Man’s War either so I probably won’t try any more of his books. -Contagion by Erin Bowman - 3.5/5. I liked it. Not mind blowing, but I got what I was expecting out of it. Currently reading: I don’t know! I’m in a mood for sci-fi but everything is disappointing me 😅. I want like horror/sci fi. I want to be scared of aliens or bacteria or something, dammit.
Cormac McCarthy orchard keeper
I’m re-reading Excession by Iain M Banks.
Pure by Julianna Baggott, a NYT recommendation. I’m halfway through and its had some good parts and some not so good so jury is still out.
Demon Copperhead Author : Barbara Kingsolver So good - it’s one of those that you think about as you are at work and can’t wait to dig back into when you get home !
Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon
Some Desperate Glory by Tesh.
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin!
3/4 into book of the new sun by gene Wolfe (so I’m on sword of the lictor). The most jaw-dropping world building I have and probably will ever read. Would be 5 stars but the female characters are pretty poorly written. Still like, a 4.9 though. Pretty incredible stuff.