Greg Bear / Iain m Banks

Johnny Storm

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Yes, and the names of the various ships in the culture series are fantastic...

Yeah, they're great is there a full list of his ship names anywhere , do you know?
In the Algebraist there's an alien warship called the Mannlicher-Carcano LOL.
Obviously named in honour of Earth's most accurate, most rapid-firing weapon.

growler

CiDeRmAn wrote:

So. could you tell me what cryptonomicon is supposed to be about, please ixoy?

cryptology

ixoy

CiDeRmAn wrote:

So. could you tell me what cryptonomicon is supposed to be about, please ixoy?

Two storylines - one contemporary, the other in the 1940s. The '40s one deals mostly with cryptography and events in WW2, such as Bletchley Park. The modern one deals with a quest to find stuff There's overlap of course...

That's a VERY rough description. Read it for yerself

Fenster

ixoy wrote:

Two storylines - one contemporary, the other in the 1940s. The '40s one deals mostly with cryptography and events in WW2, such as Bletchley Park. The modern one deals with a quest to find stuff There's overlap of course...

That's a VERY rough description. Read it for yerself

Lets not forget the Hobbit dinner party scene.

ixoy

Fenster wrote:

Lets not forget the Hobbit dinner party scene.

I personally dug the exploding monitor description that took pages

madrab

if your really looking for an "interesting" read

try "house of leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski



real interesting

Johnny Storm

Johnny Storm wrote:

Yeah, they're great is there a full list of his ship names anywhere , do you know?
In the Algebraist there's an alien warship called the Mannlicher-Carcano LOL.
Obviously named in honour of Earth's most accurate, most rapid-firing weapon.

Well to answer my own question, here's the list Iain M Banks ship names

madrab

Johnny Storm wrote:

Well to answer my own question, here's the list Iain M Banks ship names

i always loved the names of the ships, and especially the conversations between some of the ships in excession (that is when i figured out how to read them )

CiDeRmAn

Yup, some of those guys are just plain nasty, especially meat f**ker, but I reckon that drone in Use of Weapons takes the biscuit, what a psycho!

madrab

yep, especially,

how he plainly deniad that he enjoyed doing any of it, also his full disection & reapir of the main characters brain at the end was brilliant

Mantel

madrab wrote:

i always loved the names of the ships, and especially the conversations between some of the ships in excession (that is when i figured out how to read them )

The conversations between them in Excession where great, not one of his greatest but those conversations where great. Took a minute or two to get my head around the first one.

The name Meat ****er was great, the way the others talked of it with a certin disgust.

I've found the books by Alastair Reynolds are another good read, the first one was great, paints a picture of an advanced city twisted in to an organic, gothic nightmare in the parts where a plague has infected the buildings and any nano technology it comes in contact with. The story continues on a bit in Chasm City and both books link togehter in Redemption Ark (a hefty read!) but I found it worth it.

His last book, Century Rain, is a bit different. Not set in the far future but still a bit ahead I actually found this better than Iain Banks The Algerbrist. It was a good book but found it didn't really have anything new from him in it and that it just seemed to end. Some good plots in it but when I finished I just felt it went "oh yeah that's it, it's over, your done."

Johnny Storm

I agree with your comments on Alastair Reynolds (although I havent read century city)
A few chapters into the first one Revelation Space I was thinking "Wow! this is one of the best SF books I have ever read". Unfortunately he didn't quite sustain that very high level of achievement but he's still one of the best at the moment. IMHO Each suceeding book has been very slightly disappointing I'm sorry to say. But I would still 100% recommend Revelation Space for anyone who likes SF

protos

Alistair Reynolds is my favorite SF author - I like some of Ian M Banks stuff, and Greg Bear can be very hit and miss. I thought Darwins Radio was excellent, but didn't get mileage at all out of Darwins Children.

There was a long thread here before about peoples favorite SF authors that seems to have disappeared. Is there any way to get it back ? I need some fresh material.

protos

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Yeah, its a pretty recent one, but 100 pages in and I am trying to figure out why its in the Sci-fi section, or as easons call it, the fantasy next to the adult fiction section, just to keep all the embarrassing customers in one place!

Both Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash were written by Neal Stephenson.

I thought Cryptonomicon was one of the best books I ever read - definately wouldn't classify it as SF though. Not sure what you'd classify it as to be honest - geek fiction ? Although the WW2 sections are based on real events.
Snow Crash is a bit older and not as tightly written, but enjoyable.
If you enjoy those two - see if you can find Zodiac. Shorter and much easier to read than the above two. Hardcore environmental activists going after large dirty corporations - set in the very near future.

CiDeRmAn

I really enjoyed Eon and its sequels, also Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars, excellent stuff. Persuaded a mate to buy a 2nd hand copy of John Varleys Steel Beach, probably the best sf book I have ever read, really, get some of his stuff its excellent.

ixoy

CiDeRmAn wrote:

I really enjoyed Eon and its sequels, also Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars, excellent stuff

Well technically one's a sequel and one's a prequel but anyway

Did you try Bear's "Moving Mars"? I really enjoyed that one. "Queen of Angels" and "Slant" are interesting cyberpunk affairs.

I'm currently on "Absolution Gap" by Alstair Reynolds. Really enjoyed the other 3 of his I read (I got "Chasm City" in there). The scrimshaw suit is a work of perverted evil genius People seem quite passionate about him - my boss at work recognised the cover from her husband's collection and some guy on the DART saw me reading it and felt compelled to strike up a conversation about him..

Next on my authors to try is Richard Morgan and "Altered Carbon". That's once I can read the rest from my current authors..

protos

Moving Mars was brilliant.
Must try John Varley. I don't remember ever seeing his books in bookshops though - is he easy to find ?

CiDeRmAn

Not really easy to find I'm afraid, pressure on shelf space in a bookstore is enormous, all of those bloody epic fantasy crap take up so much room, the older books get pushed out, but if you look on Amazon or Ebay you should find some, honestly it is great stuff, must recommend everyone to dig back into the 60's and 70's for Sci-FI, there is so much stuff with outlooks based on the prevailing politics and contra-goverment movements, very good, few of it dates at all, try Fall of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke, really good, a disaster movie in space, before there were disaster movies at all, should be available in 2nd hand bookshops everywhere and well worth a read. Also look for anything by James White, his Sector General books are great and He is Irish! Thet were written over the last few decades and are very entertaining.

madrab

just read inversions, thought it was so so, not really sci fi,

CiDeRmAn

Wel, I guess you have to read Inversion in context with the rest of his Culture novels, seeing the high and lofty society that the two protagonists have left to live in the medieval society, both with radically different outlooks on their adopted homeland.
I liked it, its not my favorite of his but no where near as terrible as some writers of note have produced recently, Stephen Baxter are you listening?

madrab

yeah i enjoyed it but i was kinda hoping for more to happen as opposed to a contrast between 2 radically different societies

for anyone that has read look to windward

has their been anything more said about the species that were in the enviromental suits that gave the cat guy the bombs in his head (ok i havent read it in years so i cant remember any details )to blow up the orbital?