The Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Thread
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This is very true. For one thing, his non-fiction books on TARZAN and DOC SAVAGE aren't X-rated at all. IMAGE OF THE BEAST, on the other hand . . . .
Then again, a lot of his reputation for sexually explicit fiction comes from a time when a lot of mainstream SF and fantasy avoided graphic sex scenes altogether. Farmer's work could be extreme for the time, but I wonder how extreme he is nowadays.
I read the Riverworld books in the late 80s and I don’t recall any thing overly salacious. This disappointed me because with Sir Richard Burton being a lead character I was expecting a lot more.
OK. I'm running into one issue with the book, I've been an atheist my life, and I know very, very little about the Church, so I'm finding myself lost with a lot of the stuff that's going on in this first part of the book. I'm 33 and I've only been in a church once or twice, and those were for secular events that just happened to be happening in a church.
Started reading Witch's Reign, the first book in the Desert Cursed series by Shannon Mayer. I'm 6 chapters in and really enjoying so far, like I said on my Instagram post, any book that starts with a woman on a horse, using a shotgun/grenade launcher, while being chased by giants, is my kinda book.
Oh yeah, and if anyone is interested in checking out Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, the e-book version is free on until Tor.com Oct. 9. I haven't read it yet, but I've seen people raving about it since it came out a couple years ago.
Oh yeah, and if anyone is interested in checking out Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, the e-book version is free on until Tor.com Oct. 9. I haven't read it yet, but I've seen people raving about it since it came out a couple years ago.
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I grew up Catholic and *I* found it hard to follow! I gave up on it years ago and probably won't try again, as I have stacks of books to read everywhere.
I read Neuromancer and enjoyed it, but it is NOT an easy book - the plot(s) are rather dense. My hubby loves his books, so I'll try more of them at some point.
I'm reading a lot of non-fiction at the moment, but I read a terrific stand-alone fantasy novel called Uprooted by Naomi Novik recently. It was fun and scary in parts and deeply addictive.
It's been ages since I read the book, but I don't recall anything particularly difficult to follow (and I was definitely NOT brought up religious.) Maybe because I saw 'The Name of the Rose' a few times I just got the general gist of the whole "monks illuminating arcane texts" thing? Or maybe it's because I played a lot of 'Fallout' in my youth.
Anyway; Been re-reading 'Wheel of Time' on and off and about half way through book 2. It's still amazing to me how long these books are and yet by the end of each one you feel like next to nothing actually happened.
Also read through the first of the Mistborn books, checked out 'Project Hail Mary' (way better than 'Artemis'), and made a start on the first of the Poppy War books and really digging it do far.
Anyway; Been re-reading 'Wheel of Time' on and off and about half way through book 2. It's still amazing to me how long these books are and yet by the end of each one you feel like next to nothing actually happened.
Also read through the first of the Mistborn books, checked out 'Project Hail Mary' (way better than 'Artemis'), and made a start on the first of the Poppy War books and really digging it do far.
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I am just finishing up The Relentless Moon, the third novel in the Lady Astronaut series. The Calculating Stars is a book that I loved; The Fated Sky, while I enjoyed it, was certainly a step down but did have some great moments. The Relentless Moon, however, is by far the best of the series. It is a great mystery novel that really benefits from its hard scifi setting to tell a page turner of a tale.
I recently read The Language of Thorns, which is a set of fairy tales set in Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse. I haven't read any of the grishaverse books (and I assume they're likely a very different style) and while I did recently see the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix, I didn't actually realize that was connected to this book until I was almost finished reading it, so I definitely came at it from the perspective of a simple book of 'modern'/new fairy tales.
And I have to say as a book of fairy tales it was very fun and interesting. I've seen quite a few sets of modern fairy tales that were good but they usually seem to have an obsession with being not just dark but darkly sexual like the only way to write a good fairy tale is to go to the exact opposite extreme of Disney. And there's nothing wrong with that per se, but it has gotten kind of repetitive. These stories, though, walk a really excellent line that never feels 'sensationalized' but also never feels 'disneyfied'. As the opening story in the book tells it, a story should feel true, and these ones do (although the final story does come across as bit more cinematic in logic, possibly in the tradition of Wicked/Maleficent).
And I have to say as a book of fairy tales it was very fun and interesting. I've seen quite a few sets of modern fairy tales that were good but they usually seem to have an obsession with being not just dark but darkly sexual like the only way to write a good fairy tale is to go to the exact opposite extreme of Disney. And there's nothing wrong with that per se, but it has gotten kind of repetitive. These stories, though, walk a really excellent line that never feels 'sensationalized' but also never feels 'disneyfied'. As the opening story in the book tells it, a story should feel true, and these ones do (although the final story does come across as bit more cinematic in logic, possibly in the tradition of Wicked/Maleficent).
I finished “Project Hail Mary” a while ago and it is fantastic. Highly recommend. A movie based on it starring Ryan Gosling is being made.
I have loved all 3 novels written by Andy Weir. He is the new superstar scifi writer. Martian has already been made into a movie and the other 2 will follow.
I just finished reading Witch's Reign, the first book in Shannon Mayer's Desert Cursed series, and I really enjoyed it. It's a lot of fun, with some likeable characters, an interesting world, and pretty good writing.
Just finished the new Stephen Baxter book, Galaxias. Not one of his better works, TBH. The first quarter of the book reads like a disaster novel, when the sun suddenly goes out (or more properly, vanishes). This only lasts for 24 hours, and then the book picks up after that, examining the after-effects socially and in terms of the earth. However, most of the book is told through the POV of three close friends who originally met in college and ultimately become minor government functionaries (and one astronaut), following them through a ten-year period. A great deal of the book past the opening "disaster" section is basically characters attending meetings where infodumps take place. Not to mention the characters themselves are boring, and only one of the three mains has any identifiable motivation. Better luck next time Stephen.
A few more thoughts on the Witch's Reign.
I really like pretty much all of the characters, with Zamira, aka Zam being a pretty fun POV for the story. There were a few characters who were only in a few scenes of this one, she really developed nicely as the book went along. There were a few characters who were only in a few scenes that I'm hoping we see more of them as the series goes along. A couple of my favorite characters left at the end of this book, I'm hoping Zam runs into them again.
The world the story takes place in was pretty interesting, with it place in a walled off region of Europe where the world's supernatural being have been separated from the regular humans. There are bits and pieces of history revealed throughout the book that have me intrigued.
The story had some interesting twists and turns as it went along that I did not expect, with one big reveal at the end really surprising me. Definitely makes me curious to see where things go in the next book or books.
The book ended on a big cliffhanger, so that definitely moves the next book, Dragon's Ground, up on my to read list.
I really like pretty much all of the characters, with Zamira, aka Zam being a pretty fun POV for the story. There were a few characters who were only in a few scenes of this one, she really developed nicely as the book went along. There were a few characters who were only in a few scenes that I'm hoping we see more of them as the series goes along. A couple of my favorite characters left at the end of this book, I'm hoping Zam runs into them again.
The world the story takes place in was pretty interesting, with it place in a walled off region of Europe where the world's supernatural being have been separated from the regular humans. There are bits and pieces of history revealed throughout the book that have me intrigued.
The story had some interesting twists and turns as it went along that I did not expect, with one big reveal at the end really surprising me. Definitely makes me curious to see where things go in the next book or books.
The book ended on a big cliffhanger, so that definitely moves the next book, Dragon's Ground, up on my to read list.
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