Thoughts about this book and it's series. I recently started foundation and I like it so far. Also what are some other good sci-fi recommendations?
Thoughts about this book and it's series. I recently started foundation and I like it so far.
Falling into your wing while paragliding is called 'gift wrapping' and turns you into a dirt torpedo pic.twitter.com/oQFKsVISkI
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Dune is probably the best sci fi I’ve ever read. Neuromancer is ass. I would also recommend Childhoods End.
I physically hurt reading this.
why? its not that controversial. i can easily see why one wouldnt like neuromancer
Dude Neuromancer has the worst prose of any scifi I have ever read. Cool concepts but that’s it and even then others have done what he did far better
>bad prose
A ton of books have this problem and it's fucking brutal
>Cool concepts
The reason shit is worth reading if the prose isn't any good
>but that’s it and even then others have done what he did far better
Because they're standing on the shoulders of giants. Plus, they're adding in their own shit; the value of reading the original stuff is so you can see it without all the extra shit added in.
Which, to your broader point, means if you're just reading it for entertainment you're probably not going to enjoy it much (if it has bad prose).
I'm reading through Iain M. Banks scifi books and his prose really varies, and his stories are hit or miss, but his ideas are cool.
Wish he'd knock it off with the "Sentient spaceships hate the human insect pets that ride them like intestinal parasites" shit.
I agree in general but Neuromancer was almost unreadable. I read it because of its foundational influence but it hasn’t aged well at all.
Became his cash cow. He cannot write dialogue, and looking at the post trilogy shit it's as if the fuck had a stroke. This sounds bad, but it's much worse. If you read at all beyond the Foundation Trilogy, stick to the Robots material. You'd probably enjoy the EXPANSE series (same one adapted by Amazon) and GREG BEAR (Eon).
This guy knows. I do realize now that you mention it that he is terrible at dialogue. Really great world builder and story presenter. I wonder if he was a pkd fan.
Stanislaw Lem, duh.
This anon is wholly and entirely correct.
>I wonder if he was a pkd fan.
They definitely read each other's work at least a bit and were vaguely acquainted in person from the cons, but nothing beyond that. Asimov wrote a foreword for one of the editions of PKD's novel once, I think.
Entry level. When you have ascended, you'll read his short stories. Short stories are the soul of pulp scifi.
Asimov writes such dialogue because in every Asimov there is only really one character, of which all other characters serve to contrast:Asimov
My Volcano
Philip K Dick
Samuel R. Delaney
Ursula K. LeGuin
Neuromancer
The Slynx
Is earthsea any good? I never read Fantasy
Earthsea is a set of children's books which grow progressively darker as the child ages with them.
You want to read Adult Ursula K. LeGuin: Left Hand of Darkness / The Dispossessed / "Hain" novels. Or you want to read her Daoist fantasy novels for adults.
Personally I think her Daoism is surrender not wu wei. And if I ever meet her again I will again punch her and break her teeth and whisper gently in her ear "the way that says that it is the way is not the way."
Real Daoist fantasy novels involve cultivators getting super strong so they can kick Buddha' teeth in
THE SPIRIT OF MONKEY WAS IRREPRESSABLE
JOURNEY TO THE WEST PROVES THAT WE CAN BASH THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOU DEMON FUCKS
LOOK HOW HOT MY CANON REVERSE TRAP IS
>LeGuin daoism fantasy novel
>find peace and make harmony with daoism
>Chinese daoism fantasy novel
>this guy glanced at my jade skinned childhood beauty, so I performed lingchi on his whole family and made him eat their remains
Suckit monkeyboi. You'll only achieve total annihilation of the self
The author has gone a bit woke. But yeah, it’s alright.
Foundation is great, at least read the second one too
It's such a fun quick read, I wish I had a teenage kid to give this book too
>good sci-fi recommendations
Short stories and novellas by Philip Dick. I've read almost all of them, you could pick any "Best of" collection. Few random recs to get you started:
>Colony
>The Defenders
>The Hanging Stranger
>Precious Artifact
>Second Variety
"Colony" radio play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgmQI4zqN2s
"Defenders" radio play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyJSTocE7dE
Do not read The Man in High Castle. I wish I hadn't.
MITHC was enlightened. Including the couples discussion of whether the book was scifi. You got filtered.
>filtered
buzzwords galore. How to oust yourself as a brainlet.
So PKD wrote a book where characters discuss the book itself. Cool self-reference, he liked doing stuff like that. In "Waterspider", for instance.
It was incredibly boring, and all of the characters mercilessly wasted. I liked the shopkeeper arc, some ideas were interesting, but overall such a drag to get through. Read a couple more stories afterwards and they felt like a breeze of fresh air.
It's an interesting and well researched alternate world history novel told from the perspective of individuals in it. I mean, like most PKD novels, it doesn't exactly have a climax and resolution. But like Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep he's an incredible world builder.
it just didn't click with me, failed to trigger an emotional pathway, idk. The worldbuilding was very weak for my taste, it didn't feel totalitarian/dystopian at all. What i love Dick for is his ability to not only create original worlds, but to show how they affect the individual (and society as a whole too).
Take "Precious Articact" for example. The man in wrecked by the conditions he's forced to exist in. His world is a lie and it takes its toll.
Or his many "technology bad" stories like "Pay for the printer" or "The Defenders" – while not focusing on single characters, they're akin to parables, with some moral to the story that applies to the whole humanity.
There's usually at least one of these elements present in his stories, but TMIHC has neither. Nothing happens, there's no moral lesson to learn, there's no internal conflict (like that of Deckard in Androids) that would develop the characters, and only a semblance of external one to drive the plot forward. Didn't click with me
are those really the PKD books you recommend? never even heard of those and i've raid a fair few.
I dont actually think PKD is that good, VALIS was a fun but very schizo book, the rest I have read (Simulacra, Galactic Pot-Healer, and DADOES) were all kind of generic "future mars colonies and robots yay!" level books, I haven't read Ubik or The Man In The High Castle yet
>Do not read The Man in High Castle. I wish I hadn't.
why
first 4 are short stories, Second Variety is a novella. I meant that a new reader could try these first or pick a "best of" collection of stories. I could ramble about his stories all day.
Simulacra is crap. A part of it is the story Novelty Act, which i loved. But incorporated into the novel, it somehow lost all appeal.
I quite liked Do Androids Dream of Electric Frogs, it was anything but generic. You might've felt that way because it had inspired countless sci-fi films and books you've seen/read or heard of.
>The Man in High Castle
here
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch>Flow My Tears>Ubik>>>Man in the High Castle>>Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep>>
Pot Healer Time Slip
I bought the trilogy in one book, liked foundation a lot and got bored of the 2nd book halfway through. I read a little at a time now but it's been a year since I was reading it regularly.
Asimov is the king of SF. If you are enjoying Foundation, move on to Robots. Nightfall is by and large my favorite short story of his, but they are all great. Too many people haven't read Bicentennial Man because of the movie, but the short story was brilliant. He has such a large catalog, you could be reading Asimov for the next decade at least.
Other than Asimov; Herbert, Clarke, and Bradbury are of course the Godfathers. The Expanse was pretty good, and its more steampunk post apocalyptic, but the Silo series was alright. Another good series ruined by a shit film is the Ender series. Maybe should have ended with Xenocide, but can't be helped. The Shadow series was interesting too.
fuck overrated western shit, read some Lem and Strugatsky Bros
>Lem
Liked Solaris, except for the academic backstory part. Didn't like Eden – too amateurish (was his first novel I think).
Robot tales and Cyberiad are supposed to be good?
"The Eighty-Minute Hour" by Brian Aldiss is one of my favourites
Tales of Pirx the Pilot is good
I've read the first 5, still have the prequels left. It was a nice lecture although too many back and forth situations for my liking. I regret that I have not read them as a kid since the themes, characters, traits, situations etc. were mostly familiar to me due to exposure in other titles/mediums etc. I will eventually wish to start his Robots series, I've heard they are part of the big storyline but man there are again like 5 or 6 books.
I really liked The Spirit Phone, despite the fact that all the characters in it are are white...
Robot is incredibly based. "Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories" has a lot of short stories and was a good read. I've heard "The Three Body Problem" is good but I haven't read it yet
>The Three Body Problem
I started it and got halfway through before the hype wore off. I couldnt believe how fucking unbearable the videogame shit was to read, and the hard scifi exposition mumbojumbo is inelegant at best. Im glad i received the box set as a gift and didnt buy it thank christ. It was such a chore honestly.
I read the first 3 novels a couple years back and while I found them enjoyable at the time I’ve almost completely forgotten the entire story. Too much skipping around to different timelines