The silver lining is, I don't have to stay "still reading" for yet another week, as I finally finished Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch. Book 3 of Rivers of London series.

Yet another case involving magic in London and the Police solving it.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Aralakh@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Started the first book of the Culture series, Consider Phlebas, only through the first three chapters, however I'm enjoying it so far -- especially compared to the writing of Red Rising (which was my last sci-fi read, at DNF atm).

[–] janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm sorry you didnt like red rising but I also totally get it. I had a lot of fun with them as I usually read more austere sf like Greg Egan, Alastair Reynolds, and Banks. So on that note; enjoy! The culture series is amazing and unique, and some of the best literature I've ever read. The Player of Games and Use of Weapons are at the top of my all-time favorites list.

[–] Aralakh@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Glad to hear that, I heard lots of great things about the series that led me to coming across it, so far I'm pretty hooked! I've come those authors too, still need to check out their works, any recommendations for where to start with Egan and Reynolds?

I'll probably attempt Red Rising, as I often do finish books tbh, however I found I just gradually lost interest with it, to the point the non-fiction I was reading in parallel was more engrossing. Thinking about why, after starting Culture novel... I found the main character a bit annoying, the technology being almost over-explained (more tell than show) --especially compared to Consider Phlebas so far, and something about the pacing being a bit off. I'll definitely try to get back to it, though I'll give it some space first.

[–] janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Happy to recommend!

For Reynolds, if you want to try a standalone novel I would say House of Suns is a great place to start. Very fun read. If you want to get in to the meat and potatoes of his writing instead, I'd say just go ahead and jump right in with Revelation Space, which is the first full installment of the series by the same name.

As for Greg Egan, I started with Diaspora and after reading four or five others I think that was a lucky start. He's basically the farthest point on the hard side of the soft-hard sf spectrum, and if you find Diaspora to be not quite to your liking, you almost certainly won't like his other works as they are even more whacky. The other startinf point that could be good is Permutation City which is SLIGHTLY more grounded in the modern day and not as far-reaching in some ways. Still, it's a crazy book because he doesn't know how to not write crazy books. He always has resources on his website to help parse some of the more mathematical concepts so perusing that can help, or make things worse lol.

Addendum: my friend is an avid reader like me and also didnt care for Red Rising, largely due to the pacing, so don't feel bad if that isn't your cuppa tea.

[–] Aralakh@lemmy.ca 3 points 23 hours ago

Thank you for the recommendations, sweetness, it's much appreciated! More for the tbr 🥲.

Glad to know I'm not alone in my experience with Red Rising, as part of what drew me to it was all the hype from others.