Edit: Looks like Linda Nagata's Memory features a ringworld. Score!
If you want to get the big stuff in space parts of The Nanotech Succession, you can just skip ahead to Deception Well. The Bohr Maker isn't directly related to the other two books. I'd read it before starting on her Inverted Frontier books, which are a sequel trilogy (that is still in progress) that ties everything in the first trilogy together and has more big stuff in space.
The Murderbot Diaries feel like the exact right amount of story each time. It's really quite impressive.
Martha Wells is just great. As good as Murderbot is, I think her old fantasy is even better. The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer are some of the best swashbuckling (in the Three Musketeers sense) high fantasy ever written.
Oooh I do love me some swashbuckling. Both books are $3 each on amazon, so impulse bought!
Read The Element of Fire first, which is (I think) the first novel she ever published and establishes the shared world she uses in The Death of the Necromancer and some of her other fantasy books.
Yea the Element of Fire is listed as the first book in the series. Got about 10% into it last night. I was a bit tired so character names are a little nebulous but I really like it so far. It does scratch that Musketeers itch, as well as maybe just a touch of Pratchet's night watch? Maybe in the dry humor.
It's not really a comedy, but the first part of it does have some of the "slice of life of a captain and his guards" vibe of the Night Watch books.
So I stayed up FAR too late and finished it up last night. It was a great ride. I knew how the beats were going to hit and it rode the classic tropes, but damn did it do it in style.
My other favorite swashbuckling fantasy books are Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. They don't really have any magic, but they are fabulously gay, which is even better (especially considering Swordspoint was written in 1987).
She wrote another book, The Fall of Kings in the same setting that's sorta kinda a tragic gay riff on LotR and an absolute punch right in the feels.
The Murderbot Diaries feel like the exact right amount of story each time. It's really quite impressive.
Martha Wells is just great. As good as Murderbot is, I think her old fantasy is even better. The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer are some of the best swashbuckling (in the Three Musketeers sense) high fantasy ever written.
Oooh I do love me some swashbuckling. Both books are $3 each on amazon, so impulse bought!
Read The Element of Fire first, which is (I think) the first novel she ever published and establishes the shared world she uses in The Death of the Necromancer and some of her other fantasy books.
Yea the Element of Fire is listed as the first book in the series. Got about 10% into it last night. I was a bit tired so character names are a little nebulous but I really like it so far. It does scratch that Musketeers itch, as well as maybe just a touch of Pratchet's night watch? Maybe in the dry humor.
It's not really a comedy, but the first part of it does have some of the "slice of life of a captain and his guards" vibe of the Night Watch books.
So I stayed up FAR too late and finished it up last night. It was a great ride. I knew how the beats were going to hit and it rode the classic tropes, but damn did it do it in style.
My other favorite swashbuckling fantasy books are Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. They don't really have any magic, but they are fabulously gay, which is even better (especially considering Swordspoint was written in 1987).
She wrote another book, The Fall of Kings in the same setting that's sorta kinda a tragic gay riff on LotR and an absolute punch right in the feels.
There was a Serialbox run of Swordspoint fiction with multiple authors, sort of a coordinated prequel anthology ("Tremontaine")? I thought it was fun!
There was a potentially huge development in the literary SFF world yesterday, as Devi Pillai replaced Fritz Foy as President and Publisher of Tor books. If you’re not familiar with her, you’re very likely to be familiar with the authors and works she’s edited, including The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. She’s been quite possibly the most important editor of the last few decades in SFF, and now she’s fully in charge of the biggest, most important, and most prestigious publishing line in SFF.
Shadowhope on
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington fits your BDO bill
I'll put it on the list, though it doesn't really fit the non-white and/or male qualification.
Ah shit, I missed that part of your post somehow. Ok yeah, it definitely doesn't. The cast, yes, but not the author. Sorry bout that.
No worries. It's not that I don't like white male authors. I do! But I just found that I wasn't getting anything but that in the way I was finding my books. So I've been making a special effort in the last few years to try to circumvent that. I get through a novel or two in a month, so the recommendation won't go to waste. :biggrin:
Lord knows I've read my share of white male writers but right now it does feel like other voices are whats driving genre fiction in new and interesting directions.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Lord knows I've read my share of white male writers but right now it does feel like other voices are whats driving genre fiction in new and interesting directions.
Yeah, white writers are I'm sure still a significantly large portion of the actual words pushed through, but most everything that I've really *noticed* recently has been from outside that. Although I really enjoy that I feel like for me it really started with some of Le Guin's works.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I think maybe A Desolation Called Peace is a little to complex emotionally for me to really get the most out of it reading it in fits and starts while working. The fucking whiplash of going from scene to scene on a couple of these is brutal.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
speaking of other voices, I just realized the new murderbot novella is coming out in a week
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Is The Relentless Moon, by Mary Robinette Kowal leaps and bounds better than the first book in the series?
Probably? Neither was super duper awesome but I remember the later books being better and I think the POV is more interesting than the "Lady Astronaut" one.
Almost halfway into Record of a Spaceborn Few. Does it ever pull all these threads together into one plot, or is it just "here's the story of a bunch of people, strangers to each other"? I'm not disliking it, but it's not exactly a page-turner. Is it simply an exercise in worldbuilding?
Almost halfway into Record of a Spaceborn Few. Does it ever pull all these threads together into one plot, or is it just "here's the story of a bunch of people, strangers to each other"? I'm not disliking it, but it's not exactly a page-turner. Is it simply an exercise in worldbuilding?
It doesn't have strong forward momentum driven by events--the guy who isn't from the exodan fleet has a traditional plot, but no one else does
I wouldn't call it 'an exercise in worldbuilding' because there's a lot of character development/the characters change and learn things
Almost halfway into Record of a Spaceborn Few. Does it ever pull all these threads together into one plot, or is it just "here's the story of a bunch of people, strangers to each other"? I'm not disliking it, but it's not exactly a page-turner. Is it simply an exercise in worldbuilding?
It has a story from beginning to end, and each of the characters has their own arc, but if you are looking for a strong plot that everyone is in it is not there. I liked the book well enough, and better than the one written before it, but it doesn't have a traditional plot. It's not quite just an exercise in worldbuilding either, as there are arcs for all the characters. They all grow and change over the course of the book. It's weird.
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to give into it." - Oscar Wilde
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Almost halfway into Record of a Spaceborn Few. Does it ever pull all these threads together into one plot, or is it just "here's the story of a bunch of people, strangers to each other"? I'm not disliking it, but it's not exactly a page-turner. Is it simply an exercise in worldbuilding?
It doesn't have strong forward momentum driven by events--the guy who isn't from the exodan fleet has a traditional plot, but no one else does
I wouldn't call it 'an exercise in worldbuilding' because there's a lot of character development/the characters change and learn things
Yeah, after I'd posted, I thought "I should put 'and character studies' on that", but then I forgot and now two messages later I regret that. :biggrin:
As I said, I'm not disliking it. I'm just not liking it as much as the previous two. And I wanted to set my expectations, as they can have a lot to do with coloring an opinion of something.
I thought those descriptions sounded very familiar but I was certain I hadn't read Record of a Spaceborn Few. After some searching I realize it's because I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which is the first book in the series of which Spaceborn Few is the 3rd (albeit, I guess, all standalone?). So I guess they're all like that? I recall basically enjoying the one I read but not feeling terribly compelled to read another.
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
The 4th one is supposed to release soon...my amazon page says it will be at my house on Tuesday
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
I thought those descriptions sounded very familiar but I was certain I hadn't read Record of a Spaceborn Few. After some searching I realize it's because I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which is the first book in the series of which Spaceborn Few is the 3rd (albeit, I guess, all standalone?). So I guess they're all like that? I recall basically enjoying the one I read but not feeling terribly compelled to read another.
Yeah kinda. A Long Way is something like a travelogue.
The second, A Closed and Common Orbit, is probably the closest to a traditional narrative, telling two stories focused each on a single character, though it's still disconnected vignettes spread over years.
Record of a Spaceborn Few is a bunch of stories that eventually cross each other.
The fourth, The Galaxy and the Ground Within, covers a much shorter period of time, centering on 3 character, of a half dozen people, thrown together by circumstance. One of whom is Pei, who shows in the first book.
They are sorta related. Closes and Common follows directly on from Long Way, and spends it's time with minor characters from it.
Record is about where the Captain of the Wayfarer is from, and the family he left behind there.
They're independent but related stories. Similar-ish narrative style.
I thought those descriptions sounded very familiar but I was certain I hadn't read Record of a Spaceborn Few. After some searching I realize it's because I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which is the first book in the series of which Spaceborn Few is the 3rd (albeit, I guess, all standalone?). So I guess they're all like that? I recall basically enjoying the one I read but not feeling terribly compelled to read another.
The second book follows only two characters; one of them has a traditional plot and the second one is slice of life/emotional growth. First and third book do have directionality, in that you want to keep reading, but the plot is not events-driven.
Is the fourth one out in paperback at all? I'm only seeing it as a kindle edition on amazon
I absolutely love slice of life shit so I'm delighted to see it pop up in well-written and compelling scifi (and slice of life isn't quite right, because I think it might imply that there isn't character develpment and growth--but there really is so much internal evolution in her stories--but I don't have a better term). So unexpected and unusual for the genre though. I'm reading her novella right now and so far it's just been this person telling you about the citizen-funded space program she's part of in ~2080, but I'm definitely curious to keep reading. Part of my question in reading is, what is the plot structure going to be here, if any? But I'm really curious to find out and I don't think I'll be disappointed regardless of the answer.
To be taught... is a weird book. I enjoyed it, but it's rather somber and more bleak than her previous work.
It has a very barebones plot, it's mostly about the joy of discovery, and to what lenghts some people would go to find it.
I enjoyed it as well. It's also a very "near future" history. I can see some similarities between it and Interstellar.
To be clear for everyone not familiar, To Be Taught, If Fortunate is not a Wayfarers series book. Those books are:
1: A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
2: A Closed and Common Orbit
3: Record of a Spaceborn Few
4: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
While I see the similarities between the 1st and 3rd Wayfarers books, the first had a much stronger traditional forward-moving plot. The character arcs were integrated into that. The second had a very strong forward-moving plot as well, it was just a flashback that explained why they were doing what they were in the non-flashback parts. The first and third were both very "book-y" plots. The third seems more like the kind of plot actual, real people have (at least the first half). Which is to say not as much of one. That doesn't make it a bad book to me, just one that's not quite as much of a page-turner.
I thought those descriptions sounded very familiar but I was certain I hadn't read Record of a Spaceborn Few. After some searching I realize it's because I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which is the first book in the series of which Spaceborn Few is the 3rd (albeit, I guess, all standalone?). So I guess they're all like that? I recall basically enjoying the one I read but not feeling terribly compelled to read another.
Yeah kinda. A Long Way is something like a travelogue.
The second, A Closed and Common Orbit, is probably the closest to a traditional narrative, telling two stories focused each on a single character, though it's still disconnected vignettes spread over years.
Record of a Spaceborn Few is a bunch of stories that eventually cross each other.
The fourth, The Galaxy and the Ground Within, covers a much shorter period of time, centering on 3 character, of a half dozen people, thrown together by circumstance. One of whom is Pei, who shows in the first book.
They are sorta related. Closes and Common follows directly on from Long Way, and spends it's time with minor characters from it.
Record is about where the Captain of the Wayfarer is from, and the family he left behind there.
They're independent but related stories. Similar-ish narrative style.
Just finished 'The Galaxy and the Ground Within' and so I guess I'm crying today. Over a ridiculous sounding alien creature. Great book, very much a continuation in style from the previous three.
I thought those descriptions sounded very familiar but I was certain I hadn't read Record of a Spaceborn Few. After some searching I realize it's because I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which is the first book in the series of which Spaceborn Few is the 3rd (albeit, I guess, all standalone?). So I guess they're all like that? I recall basically enjoying the one I read but not feeling terribly compelled to read another.
Yeah kinda. A Long Way is something like a travelogue.
The second, A Closed and Common Orbit, is probably the closest to a traditional narrative, telling two stories focused each on a single character, though it's still disconnected vignettes spread over years.
Record of a Spaceborn Few is a bunch of stories that eventually cross each other.
The fourth, The Galaxy and the Ground Within, covers a much shorter period of time, centering on 3 character, of a half dozen people, thrown together by circumstance. One of whom is Pei, who shows in the first book.
They are sorta related. Closes and Common follows directly on from Long Way, and spends it's time with minor characters from it.
Record is about where the Captain of the Wayfarer is from, and the family he left behind there.
They're independent but related stories. Similar-ish narrative style.
Just finished 'The Galaxy and the Ground Within' and so I guess I'm crying today. Over a ridiculous sounding alien creature. Great book, very much a continuation in style from the previous three.
And I just finished Record of a Spaceborn Few, and was shredded when I found out how all (well, all but one) the stories tied together. I was tearing up quite a bit in A Closed and Common Orbit, too. Chambers really knows how to turn on my taps.
I got a pile of books here, but I think I'll pick up Velocity Weapon next on @redx's suggestion.
To be taught... is a weird book. I enjoyed it, but it's rather somber and more bleak than her previous work.
It has a very barebones plot, it's mostly about the joy of discovery, and to what lenghts some people would go to find it.
I'm struggling to finish it
It's so boring to me! It's very 50s hard scifi (no one is likely call it "hard scifi" cause it's written by a woman, and also holy shit who cares about microgenres within scifi, but I do think the comparison to 50s exploration stories is worthwhile.
It's definitely well-written, but it's like, WE ARE ASTRONAUTS AND WE WENT TO A PLANET AND WE SAW NEW BIOLOGY THERE AND DID SCIENCE TO IT, THE SCIENCE WAS PLAUSIBLE AND I LOVE SCIENCE AND YOU SHOULD TOO. Ok, yeah, cool, anything else? NO THAT'S IT WE LOVE THE JOY OF DISCOVERY AND HUMAN POTENTIAL FOR TECHNOLOGY. What about like...characters? NO, ONLY PLAUSIBLE BIOLOGY OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL BIOMES.
I mean it's clearly written by a modern person and there's a little diverse group of characters who all have personalities (and they all fuck each other in this little astronaut community) but like...nothing is driven by their personalities or desires, and they don't seem to change as people or anything. The story could star any 4 people and it would unfold exactly the same. Like sure we see how they each react to stress due to their personalities but like...eh.
It's interesting to me, because her other books are very, very character-heavy, and everyone has compelling emotional arcs.
Who knows, maybe it will pickup but there's nothing driving me to read it except completionism.
Someone who does like space probably would like this book, but I don't really like space
Steam, LoL: credeiki
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
edited April 2021
I think To Be Taught... could have benefited from a few more drafts, maybe another 50-75 pages and really flesh it out.
I definitely agree the characters are barely characters at all. They’re sketches of characters.
As is, it’s more like a brochure for space travel (and a love letter to the idea of space exploration, and an attempt to guilt-trip people who don’t think human space exploration is worth the expense.)
knitdan on
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
I'm a little sad you're bouncing off Credeki as I want to know your opinion of the ending.
I kind of hated it. It felt like they decided to make no decision and gave up all their agency. Which does dovetail pretty firmly into the "Not really characters".
To be taught... is a weird book. I enjoyed it, but it's rather somber and more bleak than her previous work.
It has a very barebones plot, it's mostly about the joy of discovery, and to what lenghts some people would go to find it.
I'm struggling to finish it
It's so boring to me! It's very 50s hard scifi (no one is likely call it "hard scifi" cause it's written by a woman, and also holy shit who cares about microgenres within scifi, but I do think the comparison to 50s exploration stories is worthwhile.
It's definitely well-written, but it's like, WE ARE ASTRONAUTS AND WE WENT TO A PLANET AND WE SAW NEW BIOLOGY THERE AND DID SCIENCE TO IT, THE SCIENCE WAS PLAUSIBLE AND I LOVE SCIENCE AND YOU SHOULD TOO. Ok, yeah, cool, anything else? NO THAT'S IT WE LOVE THE JOY OF DISCOVERY AND HUMAN POTENTIAL FOR TECHNOLOGY. What about like...characters? NO, ONLY PLAUSIBLE BIOLOGY OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL BIOMES.
I mean it's clearly written by a modern person and there's a little diverse group of characters who all have personalities (and they all fuck each other in this little astronaut community) but like...nothing is driven by their personalities or desires, and they don't seem to change as people or anything. The story could star any 4 people and it would unfold exactly the same. Like sure we see how they each react to stress due to their personalities but like...eh.
It's interesting to me, because her other books are very, very character-heavy, and everyone has compelling emotional arcs.
Who knows, maybe it will pickup but there's nothing driving me to read it except completionism.
Someone who does like space probably would like this book, but I don't really like space
I absolutely care about plausible extraterrestrial biology. I'm in!
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
I'm a little sad you're bouncing off Credeki as I want to know your opinion of the ending.
I kind of hated it. It felt like they decided to make no decision and gave up all their agency. Which does dovetail pretty firmly into the "Not really characters".
Ok I just finished it and
Yeah, not a satisfying ending because
1. weird pacing--it was totally abrupt. Felt like they needed to spend more time on the last planet before the story wrapped up.
2. total non-message--if this book is meant to inspire a certain feeling about science, the astronauts should have elected to venture further
3. doesn't really make sense--what sort of person would rather stay in torpor and die of old age than either go home or venture forward?
4. not character-driven--there's no particular feeling the characters as portrayed would choose this, or that it was meaningful to any of them, or that it did anything for their (nonexistent) story arcs
hmph big frown to all of this. Wayfarers is so good, pls use similar judgment in other works, author+editor team.
Steam, LoL: credeiki
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SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
I haven't read the 3rd Wayfarers book yet, am I going to miss stuff for GatGW?
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
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The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
If you want to get the big stuff in space parts of The Nanotech Succession, you can just skip ahead to Deception Well. The Bohr Maker isn't directly related to the other two books. I'd read it before starting on her Inverted Frontier books, which are a sequel trilogy (that is still in progress) that ties everything in the first trilogy together and has more big stuff in space.
My other favorite swashbuckling fantasy books are Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. They don't really have any magic, but they are fabulously gay, which is even better (especially considering Swordspoint was written in 1987).
She wrote another book, The Fall of Kings in the same setting that's sorta kinda a tragic gay riff on LotR and an absolute punch right in the feels.
There was a Serialbox run of Swordspoint fiction with multiple authors, sort of a coordinated prequel anthology ("Tremontaine")? I thought it was fun!
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
I'll put it on the list, though it doesn't really fit the non-white and/or male qualification.
Ah shit, I missed that part of your post somehow. Ok yeah, it definitely doesn't. The cast, yes, but not the author. Sorry bout that.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
No worries. It's not that I don't like white male authors. I do! But I just found that I wasn't getting anything but that in the way I was finding my books. So I've been making a special effort in the last few years to try to circumvent that. I get through a novel or two in a month, so the recommendation won't go to waste. :biggrin:
Yeah, white writers are I'm sure still a significantly large portion of the actual words pushed through, but most everything that I've really *noticed* recently has been from outside that. Although I really enjoy that I feel like for me it really started with some of Le Guin's works.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I'd forgotten how fun but lived in her worlds feel
Yup. Yay memorable dates.
Probably? Neither was super duper awesome but I remember the later books being better and I think the POV is more interesting than the "Lady Astronaut" one.
It doesn't have strong forward momentum driven by events--the guy who isn't from the exodan fleet has a traditional plot, but no one else does
I wouldn't call it 'an exercise in worldbuilding' because there's a lot of character development/the characters change and learn things
It has a story from beginning to end, and each of the characters has their own arc, but if you are looking for a strong plot that everyone is in it is not there. I liked the book well enough, and better than the one written before it, but it doesn't have a traditional plot. It's not quite just an exercise in worldbuilding either, as there are arcs for all the characters. They all grow and change over the course of the book. It's weird.
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Yeah, after I'd posted, I thought "I should put 'and character studies' on that", but then I forgot and now two messages later I regret that. :biggrin:
As I said, I'm not disliking it. I'm just not liking it as much as the previous two. And I wanted to set my expectations, as they can have a lot to do with coloring an opinion of something.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Yeah kinda. A Long Way is something like a travelogue.
The second, A Closed and Common Orbit, is probably the closest to a traditional narrative, telling two stories focused each on a single character, though it's still disconnected vignettes spread over years.
Record of a Spaceborn Few is a bunch of stories that eventually cross each other.
The fourth, The Galaxy and the Ground Within, covers a much shorter period of time, centering on 3 character, of a half dozen people, thrown together by circumstance. One of whom is Pei, who shows in the first book.
They are sorta related. Closes and Common follows directly on from Long Way, and spends it's time with minor characters from it.
Record is about where the Captain of the Wayfarer is from, and the family he left behind there.
They're independent but related stories. Similar-ish narrative style.
The second book follows only two characters; one of them has a traditional plot and the second one is slice of life/emotional growth. First and third book do have directionality, in that you want to keep reading, but the plot is not events-driven.
Is the fourth one out in paperback at all? I'm only seeing it as a kindle edition on amazon
I absolutely love slice of life shit so I'm delighted to see it pop up in well-written and compelling scifi (and slice of life isn't quite right, because I think it might imply that there isn't character develpment and growth--but there really is so much internal evolution in her stories--but I don't have a better term). So unexpected and unusual for the genre though. I'm reading her novella right now and so far it's just been this person telling you about the citizen-funded space program she's part of in ~2080, but I'm definitely curious to keep reading. Part of my question in reading is, what is the plot structure going to be here, if any? But I'm really curious to find out and I don't think I'll be disappointed regardless of the answer.
It has a very barebones plot, it's mostly about the joy of discovery, and to what lenghts some people would go to find it.
I enjoyed it as well. It's also a very "near future" history. I can see some similarities between it and Interstellar.
To be clear for everyone not familiar, To Be Taught, If Fortunate is not a Wayfarers series book. Those books are:
1: A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
2: A Closed and Common Orbit
3: Record of a Spaceborn Few
4: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
While I see the similarities between the 1st and 3rd Wayfarers books, the first had a much stronger traditional forward-moving plot. The character arcs were integrated into that. The second had a very strong forward-moving plot as well, it was just a flashback that explained why they were doing what they were in the non-flashback parts. The first and third were both very "book-y" plots. The third seems more like the kind of plot actual, real people have (at least the first half). Which is to say not as much of one. That doesn't make it a bad book to me, just one that's not quite as much of a page-turner.
Just finished 'The Galaxy and the Ground Within' and so I guess I'm crying today. Over a ridiculous sounding alien creature. Great book, very much a continuation in style from the previous three.
And I just finished Record of a Spaceborn Few, and was shredded when I found out how all (well, all but one) the stories tied together. I was tearing up quite a bit in A Closed and Common Orbit, too. Chambers really knows how to turn on my taps.
I got a pile of books here, but I think I'll pick up Velocity Weapon next on @redx's suggestion.
I'm struggling to finish it
It's so boring to me! It's very 50s hard scifi (no one is likely call it "hard scifi" cause it's written by a woman, and also holy shit who cares about microgenres within scifi, but I do think the comparison to 50s exploration stories is worthwhile.
It's definitely well-written, but it's like, WE ARE ASTRONAUTS AND WE WENT TO A PLANET AND WE SAW NEW BIOLOGY THERE AND DID SCIENCE TO IT, THE SCIENCE WAS PLAUSIBLE AND I LOVE SCIENCE AND YOU SHOULD TOO. Ok, yeah, cool, anything else? NO THAT'S IT WE LOVE THE JOY OF DISCOVERY AND HUMAN POTENTIAL FOR TECHNOLOGY. What about like...characters? NO, ONLY PLAUSIBLE BIOLOGY OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL BIOMES.
I mean it's clearly written by a modern person and there's a little diverse group of characters who all have personalities (and they all fuck each other in this little astronaut community) but like...nothing is driven by their personalities or desires, and they don't seem to change as people or anything. The story could star any 4 people and it would unfold exactly the same. Like sure we see how they each react to stress due to their personalities but like...eh.
It's interesting to me, because her other books are very, very character-heavy, and everyone has compelling emotional arcs.
Who knows, maybe it will pickup but there's nothing driving me to read it except completionism.
Someone who does like space probably would like this book, but I don't really like space
I definitely agree the characters are barely characters at all. They’re sketches of characters.
As is, it’s more like a brochure for space travel (and a love letter to the idea of space exploration, and an attempt to guilt-trip people who don’t think human space exploration is worth the expense.)
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
I absolutely care about plausible extraterrestrial biology. I'm in!
Ok I just finished it and
1. weird pacing--it was totally abrupt. Felt like they needed to spend more time on the last planet before the story wrapped up.
2. total non-message--if this book is meant to inspire a certain feeling about science, the astronauts should have elected to venture further
3. doesn't really make sense--what sort of person would rather stay in torpor and die of old age than either go home or venture forward?
4. not character-driven--there's no particular feeling the characters as portrayed would choose this, or that it was meaningful to any of them, or that it did anything for their (nonexistent) story arcs
hmph big frown to all of this. Wayfarers is so good, pls use similar judgment in other works, author+editor team.
Having read the 3rd book and reading the description for GatGW, it seems like it's not really connected.
no. I can't even think of minor associations between the two.
It's like, the Animal Crossing of books. I'm at the bit now with