What are you reading now?

Just got an Audible yearly membership.  Recommend me some hard Sci-Fi.  Examples of Sci-Fi books I think are awesome:

• The Martian 
• Artemis 
• Sphere
• Jurassic Park 

I should probably just get all the Crichton stuff I haven't read.  Maybe some Phillip K Dick?  

What I dont want: 

• lengthy series
• this is the future and anything is possible sci-fi (think Altered Carbon, Alastair Reynolds books, Peter F. Hamilton)

I'm currently listening to Exhalation by Ted Chiang.  Many of the stories are excellent, but the longest one by far I did not really enjoy.

Try Larry Niven's original Ringworld, or the short story collection Tales Of Known Space. 

Reading “Hunting El Chapo” by Andrew Hogan.  Fascinating read so far!

A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee.  Scotland yard detective and WW1 veteran takes a job in Calcutta after his wife dies of the Spanish flu.  Plus, he likes opium.

In reply to ProDarwin :

How much of "this is the future and anything can happen" do you want?  Where's the limit?

There are several authors if recommend if you fleshed that out more.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

If you reread his post, he wants zero of that. 
 

In reply to Duke :

You have to have some or it isnt sci fi.  Disregarding the "hard" sci fi part in order to create a scale, Stranger in a Strange Land would probably fit on his list, but I'm not sure the Foundation series would.

The Unincorporated Man might work, as might The Windup Girl

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

How much of "this is the future and anything can happen" do you want?  Where's the limit?

There are several authors if recommend if you fleshed that out more.

I don't really know how to articulate that.  Look at the books I listed.  They are all basically modern day technologies, with a slight twist.  That slight twist is central to the plot, not bullE36 M3 filler. 

Compare with this is the future so:

• everyone can live forever
• and teleport everywhere
• and download memories
• and clone
• and cyborgs
• and cars can fly and go underwater
• and spaceships defy all physics
• and there are laser guns
• and there are 1200 other alien races that are all still humanoid somehow

and blah blah blah.  I'm not so into those books.

In reply to ProDarwin :

Scalzi mostly does those books you don't want to read, but there are two or three you might enjoy.  Lock In was enjoyable and has a sequel I haven't read yet, Android's Dream sort of gets close to a couple of the things you're not a fan of, Agent To The Stars is a very early book and it shows but its good.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson is good

I think I would recommend The Windup Girl.  

I'll go through my bookshelves and see what else I can find

C J Cherryh's older work might appeal to you. Fairly hard science and meticulous future anthropology. 

Also try Planetfall or The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. 

David Brian's work is good but sometimes inconsistent. I did particularly enjoy Startide Rising. 

ProDarwin said:

I should probably just get all the Crichton stuff I haven't read.  Maybe some Phillip K Dick? 

Phillip K Dick took a lot of psychoactive drugs  and it shows in his writing.  His stuff is intensely paranoid and focused on personal identity.  It's not particularly involved with the kind of detailed 'speculative fiction' that it sounds like you're interested in.

Crichton is OK, but I find his stuff fairly inconsistent and some of it is written purely to generate visual effects for a potential movie, not because the technology inherently makes sense.  I've heard his books described a 'hardcover screenplays' which is fairly accurate.  Some I really have enjoyed, though.

I've been an Audible subscriber for nine years. In that time I've listened to about 275 books (Yeah commute!). Anywho, I listen to a lot of hard sci-fi, but I was starting to get burned out when I found humorous sci-fi. I'm currently listening to Barry J. Hutchison's Space Team series. I'm on book 11. I like the books so much that I've adopted some of the language. E36 M3 became Shiz! berkeley became Funk! Now I can curse in front of my teenagers and not feel bad about it. If you want a hilarious, carefree read/listen I highly recommend them.

Read Michael Lewis' The Fifth Risk cover to cover on a recent flight. Another great dive into recent events that goes well beyond the typical long form journalism formula.

Planning to go see 1917. Figured I'd get an overview. My grandfather served in France.

This is his ID, reissued before redeployment after being wounded.

Overstory   by Richard Powers

There is a reason it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019.

It is in paperback now.   Usually don't read novels.  This one is different.  You might come away with a whole different perspective on wood.

In reply to Floating Doc :

Looks very interesting. I have a couple books in advance after I finish the second volume of Cunningham. That'll take me through our February Palm Springs trip. But this looks like something I'd like to read during our Viking River Cruise on the Danube after that.

In reply to Gary :

Where will you be going on the cruise?

We did a choir tour back in 2001, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. The evidence of heavy street fighting was very obvious in Budapest. I remember walking through the center of the city, and looking at all of the bullet holes in the masonry of the buildings. 

One of the apartment buildings had a view in every direction at a crossroads. There was a lot of smaller pockmarks from lighter weapons, and then a row of larger holes that showed where a heavy machine gun had raked across the side of the building.

In reply to Floating Doc :

Starting in Prague as a 3-day pre-cruise excursion. Then we're bussed to Nuremburg to meet the river boat. From there down the Main-Danube Canal to the Danube River and then all the way to Budapest. Many stops in between, including Vienna. We leave Boston on May 11 and return on Memorial Day Weekend. (So unfortunately I miss the great Lime Rock race weekend. Bad planning by me). This will be our 4th Viking river cruise in Europe.

I'll look for the machine gun pock marks.

For me, even though I like the daily shore excursions, what I mostly like is the relaxed river cruising, watching the scenery pass by. Whether we're lounging on the top deck or sitting on out on our tiny private balcony (always sipping wine), it's a special experience.

In reply to Gary :

The strangest experience was when we were walking back to our hotel one night after dinner. I stopped everyone and had them double back to point out where a building used to be on the opposite side of the street.

You could see the outline of the location of the building in the bricks of the building next to it. On the side of the street where we were standing, the concrete curb was partially blasted away. Obviously, a shell or bomb had hit that building.

Just as we're standing there looking at it, and trying to imagine the Soviet army sweeping through there in 1945, a massive fireworks show started on the river. The large commercial fireworks sounded just like artillery in that context, and we couldn't see the fireworks to know what was happening. We ran for about three blocks towards the river 

It turned out to be the 300th anniversary of one of the bridges. 

Just ordered a book through Amazon ...  a biography of Walt Hansgen. I'm finishing-up the two-part volume on Briggs Cunningham that Annie gave me for my birthday last December. Walt Hansgen plays a major role in the Cunningham racing endeavors in the fifties and sixties. I'm looking forward to this.

I should have the book before our trip to Palm Springs starting on Feb. 18th.

The Tunnels Greg Mitchell

I'm about halfway through The Margarets now.  If you've read Sheri S. Tepper's other works, it has similar themes but I am enjoying it.

Just read Just One Damn Thing After Another, by Jodi Taylor, first book in a series about time traveling historians. I enjoyed it and will probably read the others at some point, although the current trend toward long series is kind of annoying. Like modern TV shows, at some point they eventually lose the thread and forget who or why they exist. Anyway, fun read, characters were good and I think the author has real potential if she keeps deepening her craft.

Just read the last book in the Awaken Online series (at the moment anyway) by Travis Bagwell and although it was OK, it's starting to reach the point mentioned above. It's all about a young man taking on the role of the lead villain in a complex VR MMORG run by a rogue AI. Throws some interesting questions about the perception of evil, the actions that define it,  and it's effect on coming of age dynamics. Plus there are exploding zombie minotaurs.

Currently waiting impatiently on the next installments from John Scalzi in the Interdependency series and Ben Aaronovitch in the Rivers of London series, both due out this spring/summer.

Floating Doc said:

In reply to Gary :

The strangest experience was when we were walking back to our hotel one night after dinner. I stopped everyone and had them double back to point out where a building used to be on the opposite side of the street.

You could see the outline of the location of the building in the bricks of the building next to it. On the side of the street where we were standing, the concrete curb was partially blasted away. Obviously, a shell or bomb had hit that building.

Just as we're standing there looking at it, and trying to imagine the Soviet army sweeping through there in 1945, a massive fireworks show started on the river. The large commercial fireworks sounded just like artillery in that context, and we couldn't see the fireworks to know what was happening. We ran for about three blocks towards the river 

It turned out to be the 300th anniversary of one of the bridges. 

Man, life can be strange sometimes. But cool.

Gary said:

Just ordered a book through Amazon ...  a biography of Walt Hansgen. I'm finishing-up the two-part volume on Briggs Cunningham that Annie gave me for my birthday last December. Walt Hansgen plays a major role in the Cunningham racing endeavors in the fifties and sixties. I'm looking forward to this.

I should have the book before our trip to Palm Springs starting on Feb. 18th.

We'll need a review when you finish it!