Hungary Bill wrote: The Expanse had me hooked all the way through the first season on Netflix. Really debating on whether or not I should pick up the series on paper.
Do it. The books are fantastic and well worth the read.
Hungary Bill wrote: The Expanse had me hooked all the way through the first season on Netflix. Really debating on whether or not I should pick up the series on paper.
Do it. The books are fantastic and well worth the read.
The0retical wrote:Hungary Bill wrote: The Expanse had me hooked all the way through the first season on Netflix. Really debating on whether or not I should pick up the series on paper.Do it. The books are fantastic and well worth the read.
Well, I'd say pick them up in e-book form rather than printed on dead trees, but yes. The books are excellent.
oh man, i love paper way too much. Our house has bookshelf upon bookshelf full of dead trees in it. 
Hungary Bill wrote: oh man, i love paper way too much. Our house has bookshelf upon bookshelf full of dead trees in it.
I love traditional dead-tree books so much my dead-tree books are on shelves made from more dead trees.
Yo dawg...
This was laying around the office so I picked it up. Amazing what a bunch of engineers with slide rules achieved. Lot's of insights into the cold war, government contracting and almost blowing up Burbank.
I am just about to finish up Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy, which chronicles the WWII European ground war from the time the US entered the theatre with the invasion of northern Africa in late 1942, through VE day.
This is a great series of books, with a readable style and a good blend of overall strategic vision detailed with tactical vignettes and individual stories. Also gives background on the vast political influences that shaped the military campaigns at all levels. Fairly balanced in laying blame and credit where they are due, often with the same individuals.
If you are interested in learning more about this particular part of history, this is a great start, or refresher.
My coworker handed me the first 12 books of The Wheel of Time series. I cannot put them down.
Rufledt wrote:Hungary Bill wrote: oh man, i love paper way too much. Our house has bookshelf upon bookshelf full of dead trees in it.I love traditional dead-tree books so much my dead-tree books are on shelves made from more dead trees.
At last count, we had 18 floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in our house. Last time we moved, I was confronted with this:
Several hours later I realized I needed to build a couple more shelves:
That's just my fiction collection. Non-fiction is downstairs, and my wife's books are in another room. Both kids have their own shelves... :)
I switched from buying dead tree books to buying ebooks a few years ago and I'm not going back for general purpose reading purposes. E-books cost less, take up way less space, are much easier to move and easier to read (Kindle is lighter than a book and easier to hold). Best of all, since I can read them on my phone, I'm never without my book. Standing in line at the grocery store? Pull out my phone and load the Kindle app, and it even keeps track of my place. It's awesome.
I'm a big sci-fi fan, but sci-fi and fantasy tend to be a bit of a harder read than most fiction. I usually read non-fiction stuff to actually you know, learn something, but sometimes you need to put some imagination into your head. I don't like reading stuff that is unknown, but at the same time, I like reading new stuff that might someday become a movie. I hear so much about all these new cool sci-fi movies and people say "oh yea I read that back in 2008 it was great!" and I'm like how do people catch these relatively unheard of books?
The thing is, some of these books that inspire movies don't even win any traditional Sci-Fi Novel awards, like the Hugo Award. Some just come from NYT Best Seller Lists. So here ya go:
From Hugo Award 2017 Finalists:
And 2016 Finalists (and winner)
16 Sci-Fi Picks from The Verge:
James S.A. Corey stuff:
8 Picks of 2017 from Popular Mechanics:
Sci-Fi Fantasy Books that show up on multiple lists:
And lastly, don't forget:
Artemis by Andy Weir (release November 14th, 2017)
I am currently reading The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly. Most of his books are pretty good, if you like action/ adventure.
I just finished "The Great Alone" by Kristin Hannah and really enjoyed it.
Great book!
I'm a huge fan of Ken Follett's historical fiction, if you are into that sort of thing. I enjoy the historical accuracy, both in setting and technical details, and character development is pretty good as well.
Double zombie thread! Just read a few since the start of the year. The latest JAck Reacher book (Midnight Line), No Middle Name (short stories), Lost World, Origins, Digital Fortess, Deception Point (I've now read all Dan Brown's books, yay!), The Wrecker (Clive Cussler series), finishing up Daniel X and then I'll be starting 20,000 Leagues under the sea.
In reply to The_Jed :
Hey!! Car people!
Car book!
The last open road.
B S Levy.
Montezums’s Ferrari
B S Levy.
The Fabulous Trashwagon
B S Levy
The Red Car
Don Stanford
I've been working my way through the Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross.
I dug this thread up based on the references to Neil Gaiman. My 15 y.o. daughter and I started watching American Gods on library DVD and I was wondering what The Hive thought of the American Gods series in both print and video...
I've not seen the series, but the original book itself is fantastic.
stroker said:I dug this thread up based on the references to Neil Gaiman. My 15 y.o. daughter and I started watching American Gods on library DVD and I was wondering what The Hive thought of the American Gods series in both print and video...
I am a big fan of the book. I did not like the TV show.
Have your daughter read the novel of 'American Gods'. Then read 'Good Omens'. Then read some more Terry Pratchett - especially the Discworld novels following The Witches and Tiffany Aching.
The book really follows the story of Shadow much more closely. The show wanders and meanders and loses focus to be able to stretch out material that should have been covered in a single season.
The book feels more mythical and timeless. Like characters from myth doing what they have always done and always will do, but in a different era. The show... skews heavily towards the present and topical. It dives into politics in a way that the book doesn't. Anansi especially is a COMPLETELY different character.
I also preferred reading about supernatural things over seeing them on the screen. In text, the strange and mythical can be bizarre and ambiguous. You can imagine multiple pictures of what is happening at once. Putting it on screen removes all ambiguity and makes everything a specific way. That kind of mythical nuance *can* work on screen, but takes the hand of someone like Robert Eggers ('The Northman', 'The Lighthouse') or Denis Villeneuve ('Blade Runner 2049', 'Dune') to execute properly.
Sky_Render said:My coworker handed me the first 12 books of The Wheel of Time series. I cannot put them down.
How goes the WOT?
Somewhere around book 7, I hit what fellow GRM member "Mezzanine" calls "the doldrums". It's brutal! I'm on book 11 now, and things are only just STARTING to look like they'll pick back up.
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