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Read any good (or bad) books lately? (fiction)

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Any other readers of fiction out there?

I'm always on the hunt for new authors with the late Iain Banks being my favourite - closely followed by Irvine Welsh. (No, i'm not scottish).

Iain Banks final book The Quarry I really enjoyed.

Irvine's last book, A Decent Ride, I found amusing but a little disappointing although his previous The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins was classic.

I'm currently reading DBC Pierre's Lights Out In Wonderland. Manic fun.

I gave up on Thomas Pynchon's Bleeding Edge as (like Inherent Vice, the movie) I just couldn't keep track of what the fuck was going on - too many characters perhaps for my tiny mind to cope with.

Anyway, I would love to hear what others are enjoying or have abandoned.

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Perdido Street Station - written by China Mieville

(surrealist steampunk, beautifully written)

Veniss Underground - written by Jeff Vandermeer

(another surrealist nightmarish weird book, also beautifully written)

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I just read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - slightly dated (you can tell it came out in '92) - but I really enjoyed it; like William Gibson's cyberpunk, but from a very different angle. Funny too. I actually like most of Stephenson's stuff, except the Baroque Cycle, which bored me to tears (I know other people like it though). I really dug Anathem as well - but be prepared to have you mind metaphysically challenged if you read that. Warning - may upset mathematicians.

What else? A lot of these aren't 'new' as such, but hopefully there is something here that people haven't read.

Last Legends of Earth by AA Attanasio - it's the last in a group of 4 books - but you needn't read them all. My visions of hyperspace are, I suspect, permanently influenced by reading this.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany - set your brain to the upright position and prepare for mental turbulence! An odd and at times unsettling read, this book may delight or irritate you (probably both). Stylistically interesting though - a writers' writer, if you know what I mean.

Light by M. John Harrison. Too weird and surreal to be considered (by some) science or speculative-fiction.

The Eyre Affair, and subsequent sequels, by Jasper Fforde. Quirky alternate-history-SF/fantasy mystery, with loads of literary references and tie-ins. Fforde's Nursery Crime novels are worth a read too. None of them are super serious, but seriously entertaining.

The Atrocity Archives, and sequels, By Charles Stross. Supernatural/Lovecraftian SF - the bureaucracy of tackling evil from the other side of reality. A must if you have ever been in the Public Service, or had a boss who audited your use of paper-clips.

Dies the Fire, and the rest of the 'emberverse' series (the first 4 or 5 at least), by S.M. Stirling. Do you like hitting stuff with swords? If you do, there is a 50% chance you've already read this :). Post apocalyptic alternative history, with a twist (or two). I don't know that it's very deep, but it's a cracking yarn with loads of action and intrigue.

Hyperion, and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Read them. Now.

Also:

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

The Final Programme by Michael Moorcock

Strange Relations, Jesus on Mars and A Feast Unknown by Philip Jose Farmer.

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Narcissus and Goldmund by Hesse is worth a read I reckon :wink:

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Great post Yeti. I've always had a soft spot for AA Attanasio so i'm glad to see he's still writing and producing the goods. His book Radix will always be part of my psyche; I started reading it coming down from a somewhat traumatic acid trip when I was sixteen so it has a place all of its own. (In hindsight it seemed to predict the internet + tablet).

If you like science fiction then Consider Phlebas or The Player Of Games by Iain (M) Banks would be standouts for me. I also have a shitload of Stephen Baxter that are good but heavy on the tech and lacking the entertainment (and humour) of Banks. Happy to bring along some to the meet if you'd like to borrow.

I recently was given a Kindle (three of them actually) and whilst I thought I wouldn't like it (i'm a traditionalist that likes to horde books because I hope someone will look at my library one day and judge me by them :lol: ) I've been proved quite wrong.

So much to choose from. Thanks all.

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I second China Mieville: Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council.

Chuck Palahniuk: Rant - if you like Welsh, you'll probably like this

Alastair Reynolds: the Revelation Space series is good, epic space opera with hard sci-fi elements. I still get a bit freaked out when I remember one of the short stories from his collection Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

Yeti, hah I thought I was the only one who liked Anathem. I was so sad when I finished that book & then looked up & remembered that none of it was real & I couldn't go join a concent.

Just read Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's about first contact with aliens - some really good discussion of psychology & language, reminded me of Mieville's Embassytown or Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (another good one if you haven't read it yet)

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Thanks CrayZ. Of Attanasio, I've only read Last Legends of Earth, which is the last book in the Radix series (tetrad,) and Hunting the Ghost Dancer, which is completely different, but in the same universe. It's funny that you mention your experience of reading Radix; I found Last Legends very comforting in relation to loss, destiny, and the overall shape of the universe. I should really read all 4 of the books - maybe even in the right order.

I keep meaning to read some Mieville, must get on that.

We can talk Anathem metaphysics and social engineering on the 20th, Anodyne - don't want to post any spoilers here :).

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Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is an amazing book, I cannot even explain how deeply it hooked me. Finishing it was like waking up from a dream which I didn't want to end.

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Holy Crap. Shantaram took me forever to get through. When I finally finished it felt like such an achievement and was also a relief just to have it done. But yeah, some of the shit that guy saw and went through was crazy. Running a medical tent in the middle of the slum, and how they delt with men who beat their wives was pretty crazy.

Anyway.

I just finished Richard Mathesons I am Legend. Literally found it hard to put down. I was just that absorbed. I've also got a few other post-apocalyptic books on my wishlist.

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I just read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - slightly dated (you can tell it came out in '92) - but I really enjoyed it; like William Gibson's cyberpunk, but from a very different angle. Funny too. I actually like most of Stephenson's stuff, except the Baroque Cycle, which bored me to tears (I know other people like it though). I really dug Anathem as well - but be prepared to have you mind metaphysically challenged if you read that. Warning - may upset mathematicians.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany - set your brain to the upright position and prepare for mental turbulence! An odd and at times unsettling read, this book may delight or irritate you (probably both). Stylistically interesting though - a writers' writer, if you know what I mean.

The Eyre Affair, and subsequent sequels, by Jasper Fforde. Quirky alternate-history-SF/fantasy mystery, with loads of literary references and tie-ins. Fforde's Nursery Crime novels are worth a read too. None of them are super serious, but seriously entertaining.

The Atrocity Archives, and sequels, By Charles Stross. Supernatural/Lovecraftian SF - the bureaucracy of tackling evil from the other side of reality. A must if you have ever been in the Public Service, or had a boss who audited your use of paper-clips.

Yes to all these. Love 'em. Except Anathem, which made me want to eat my own teeth from sheer frustration at the pretentiousness of it all

Also: anything by Kazuo Ishaguro. Can be a little frustrating too because he gets inside his character's heads so bloody well, and none of them are perfect. But lyrical prose always gets me and his is gorgeous

DBC Pierre- yes. Vernon God Little was my introduction to him, I think the only one of his I haven't read is the Borgia one

Peter Carey- earlier works are more elegantly spare. Later aren't bad, but his early stuff is lovely

And if you are even thinking about only buying one fiction book this year, get "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi

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I know that The Windup Girl won a whole heap of awards & was really popular & all, but I really didn't like it. He had some interesting tech stuff, some of it pretty cool & imaginative, but I felt that he totally ruined it with all the gratuitous sex & violence - I mean, I don't mind that in a book, I liked Palahniuk, I liked Welsh, I liked Burroughs FFS (try The Place of Dead Roads, I rate it as highly as Naked Lunch... but with more gay cowboys), but with Bacigalupi it just felt like he was putting rape scenes in there for the hell of it. For a bit of contrast, there's Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake, which explores a similar post-biotech/climate-change apocalypse world, but does it in a more Slaughterhouse Five kind of style... I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I actually find all the atrocities to be more vivid when they're not spelled out quite so graphically.

I don't like all of Neal Stephenson's stuff, but for his take on the nanotech-future, his book The Diamond Age explores what a society might be like if you could just build anything you liked in your local matter-compiler (or whatever the hell they're called). It was a bit more imaginative than his standard super-geek-saves-the-day schtick.

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CrayZ - Have you read ecstasy by Irvine Welsh? If you haven't I recommend it. It's a display of his awesome sense of humour.

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CrayZ - Have you read ecstasy by Irvine Welsh? If you haven't I recommend it. It's a display of his awesome sense of humour.

Yeah man, I've read (and own) all of Irvine's books. My favourite would (probably) be Maribou Stork Nightmares and i really enjoyed Crime and Glue as well. Hell, I enjoyed them all! Porno is probably the weakest and, as I mentioned earlier A Decent Ride... filler.

I might give Ecstasy a reread though now you've mentioned it... once i get through the above list, of course. :blink:

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I know that The Windup Girl won a whole heap of awards & was really popular & all, but I really didn't like it. He had some interesting tech stuff, some of it pretty cool & imaginative, but I felt that he totally ruined it with all the gratuitous sex & violence

Interesting POV. I found the sex and violence well within context and not gratuitous at all. The first uses for most new technology are often sex, drugs or warfare, and the descriptions of the GM sex worker's treatment well establish the reason for her feelings of conflict and humilitiation without going into overdrive IMO. The oppressiveness of the environment the story is set in are in is well within the possibilities offered by the political and social climate described

. For a bit of contrast, there's Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake, which explores a similar post-biotech/climate-change apocalypse world, but does it in a more Slaughterhouse Five kind of style... I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I actually find all the atrocities to be more vivid when they're not spelled out quite so graphically.

Ooh I must read Oryx & Crake again, her book The Handmaid's Tale is something I periodically re-read and is brilliant- no idea what the movie was like

Used to love Vonnegut as a kid, read 'em to death. I'll wait a few more years and re-read

I don't like all of Neal Stephenson's stuff, but for his take on the nanotech-future, his book The Diamond Age explores what a society might be like if you could just build anything you liked in your local matter-compiler (or whatever the hell they're called). It was a bit more imaginative than his standard super-geek-saves-the-day schtick.

Stephenson's female characters are getting better, Cryptonomicon was a good book but the main sheila was a bit 2D. REAMDE was much smoother with it's character development. I'll give The Diamond Age a re-read, ta for headsup

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Thanks Guys, I've been looking for some new authors that are worth reading. I even got motivated to rejoin the library and get Anathem out, nobody mentioned it's nearly a 1000 pages and I've only got 3 weeks to read it, good job the hospital has me on Dexamethasone which stops you from sleeping for days on end.

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Interesting POV. I found the sex and violence well within context and not gratuitous at all. ..The oppressiveness of the environment the story is set in are in is well within the possibilities offered by the political and social climate described

Yep I agree, and I get what you're saying. I almost didn't mention this because my problem with this book was so difficult for me to articulate. I suppose that personally, graphic imagery often distracts me from whatever sociopolitical point they are trying to make, rather than illustrating it. Something like if I went to a political meeting and the main speaker gave her speech about social reforms topless - wouldn't matter how good her arguments were, because my attention would be elsewhere. Or for a more realistic example, the way that political rallies often only get media attention when they become violent - it's a sensationalist thing, forgotten the next week along with whatever message they were trying to convey. For me, the images that stay with me are the sneaky subtle ones that get under your skin & you only realise later "oh fuck, that's what they meant by that". Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days was like that - a friend told me they were creeped out by it, and I read it & didn't really understand what was so bad about it. And then I thought about it, and thought about some more, and got a bit creeped out myself, and eventually decided that it's one of the more horrific things I've ever read. But while there's a little violence, there is nothing in the story that stands out immediately as being particularly R-rated (I actually once saw an anime film with many of the same themes as Reynolds which had been misclassified as children's cartoon), it's just the trains of thought that it sets off. If an image/scene is presented to me fully-formed, then I don't feel the need to imagine it so thoroughly. Whereas if they just imply something, I find myself having to think "hang on, how did that happen?" or "why did they do that?", and I have to think through the chain of events which led there before I can imagine the scene. Which for me is much of the point of speculative fiction. It's interesting to read other people's descriptions of possible futures. But I find it more rewarding if their descriptions make me think about how we would get from A to B, from present day to that hypothetical future. Because that's when I start looking around & seeing all the steps we are already taking towards those future paths.

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Shantaram is purely a work of fiction FYI.

Dude was a junkie living in a slum.

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To anyone who is lurking this thread there is some very good advice posted by the contributors here, and some brilliant authors to choose from if you haven't discovered them already.

I have now recently read Neil Stephenson - Anathem. A marvellous marathon tale after a learning curve of history and dialect.

China Mieville - The Scar. A marathon beautifully written nautical headfuck.

Ian M Banks - The player of Games. A vividly painted adventure to a very different time and galaxy.

Next I will try an Irvine Welsh, and I have little doubt I will be kept as engrossed as I have by the previous 3, and so many more still to choose.

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I've just finished Graham Hancock's "war god" series, which is a fictional retelling of the Spanish conquest of the Mexica. It's ok, it starts off at a fast pace, but it tends to get bogged down in military detail a lot.

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Im reading a pretty good book at the moment 'Life in the fast lane: Road to Redemption' based on growing up in the 90's Melbourne graff scene and everything that went with it.

Ive really been enjoying it, it hits home for me and does a good job of painting an image of what it was like.

You can get a cheap digital copy from amazon or the book is about $20.00.

Its also good to support local fringe culture authors. https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/B017NMTGQG?keywords=life%20in%20the%20fast%20lane&pc_redir=T1&qid=1457929674&redirect=true&sr=8-1

Edited by AndyAmine.

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Finished Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons recently. 8/10. A very plausible portrayal of our future I thought - particularly how religion will still maintain an influence.

I also just read China Meiville's Perdido Street Station. Boy, that's a dark and dirty (literally) space-tragedy. 8/10.

I started to read Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, because my daughter had borrowed from her school library. But it varies considerably from the movie (which I adore) and so I'm not sure I'm ready for it. (Edit: and then I read this... http://www.thereadventurer.com/-home/book-vs-movie-howls-moving-castle-by-diana-wynne-jones ...so I might try again).

Now on to some more DBC Pierre (Breakfast with the Borgias) for a bit of a sci-fi breather.

Edited by CrayZ
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Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones?  Meh - i'll stick to the movie. 4/10

 

Breakfast with the Borgias by DBC Pierre.  A bit of a lightweight read but still not bad. 6/10

 

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Just finished reading a good book and remembered this thread.

 

NOFX: the hepatitis bloodbath and other stories

 

If you have any interest in punk at all I'd strongly recommend.  Even if you don't care for punk its still a good read.  

 

I realize its non fiction but damn it was an interesting read.  I hate autobiographical books but this was great. 

 

Also was hoping for fiction suggestions for something next.

 

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Im a big fan of Neal Stephenson, Ireally enjoyed almost everythimg of his Ihave read. Recently finished his new one Seveneves. Me and my partner took to reading a book out loud. Seveneves was not the right choice for this project. Ithink it wouldve been much easier to read in my head. Cool apocalyptic earth destruction scenario though. Slow pace. Now for the out loud we are doing Terry Pratchett. Its fun to go back over these books I liked as a kid. Still some good fun silly humour in there.

If you like fantasy books, Name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss was possibly the best I have enncountered in the genre, be warned only two of three books are out at the moment and its been 5 years since the last release.

I really like Most of Graham Hancocks releases. Im not so keen on his fiction, the one that was good (entangled) he never wrote the sequels to. It was an ayahuasca thriller transcendinng the barriers of time. Iliked the concept.

But his non fiction is cool - fingerprints of the gods and magicians of the gods, exploring the evidence of ancient advanced civilizations on earth. But my favorite of his was supernatural, where he explores the similarities between accounts of fairy encounters, alien abductions and psychedelic experiences.

 

Jean M Auel Earths Children series was great. Follows the life of a girl who lives in the time of neanderthals. Obviously there is plenty of artistic license taken with the story but is a fairly credible portrayal of what life might have been like back then. Except the main character discovers all the breakthroughs that change the human world. The only detractor from this was the sex scenes. It turned into a mills and boon style romance with many long sex scenes filled with colorful metaphors that really dragged the story to a halt.

 

Greg Egan writes some amazing hard sci fi, a lot of it is way too over my head to understand the technical stuff, but I still love the stories. Diaspora is a masterpiece. Follows the human race into the future of digital consciousness and exploration to the end of reality. Its a wild ride!

 

Michael moorcock Dancers at the end of time At first I thought this was going to suck, but it got more and more bizarre as it went along. This guy has a strange imagination some really cool time travelling sci fi weirdness. Im looking forward to seeing where his other books go.

 

I quite like apocalypse fiction, Luscifers Hammer, One Second After, Alas Babylon were all good. The long emergency was not fiction and a little to real for me. Didnt get through that one. Always keen for more apocalypse scenarios though.

 

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand This was heavy going but an interesting read. Kind of an apocalyptic tale itself, where society is destroyed by equal oportunities.

 

Picture of Dorian Gray by OScar Wilde. Amazing Story. Beautifully written. An old favorite. If you haven't read it Iwould highly recommend

 

Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov. This is one of my favorite Sci fi series. It is about AI, with a series of rules that all intelligent robots must follow. It startes out with the story I Robot, which is also now a movie. I really like how the seemingly clear and unshakeable laws of robotics can be twisted through circumstance and logic.

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