Comment by pavel_lishin
16 hours ago
Sci-fi nerd recommendations follow.
I binged the entirety of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The cover, & the fact that it was on Kindle Unlimited, made me think it was probably cheap crap, but I was impressed with how well-written it was, and how much I empathized with the characters. (I probably should have read it slower; by the last two books, I was just flowing with the text, not paying as much attention to the overarching plot.)
Heinlein's "Orphans of the Sky" was pretty bad. So much early scifi is considered great because it's groundbreaking, writing about things nobody else has before. The concept of a generation ship was pretty new at the time Heinlein was writing it, and it has some very interesting concepts, but the book has some really bad problems. If you've read it, you know; if you haven't, and decide to, you'll see it for yourself.
I binged a few Brandon Sanderson books. The standalones are great; the Stormlight Archive is a huge slog through some beautiful writing, but I'm not sure I'm willing to spend so much time in beautiful books that move the plot forward so slowly.
Exordia, by Seth Dickinson, started off incredible, kept going, but the ending felt like both a fizzle as well as a cliff-hanger for the next book. I'm glad I read it, but I wish it had a clear conclusion it wanted to reach.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Memory" delivers more of the great philosophical questions & answers about the nature of consciousness and personhood that the previous books did, A+. No idea where he could possibly go from there, but if he does, I'm going along for the journey. (Honorable mention: Alien Clay. Dishonorable mention: Service Model.)
Eric Flint's "Fenrir" was a fun BDO near-future space adventure. (As was John Sanford's Saturn Run, but that wasn't a 2025 book I read.)
For the Stormlight Archive: You have to world build. The first book definitely felt like a slog for the first half-ish. Not much that feels like major plot events happen yet, but if you look at it with the understanding that it's intended to be 10 books, a lot of exposition is needed.
The payoff is worth it, IMO.
If it did it for you that's great. For me, it started interesting but the characters changed too dramatically for me and it just got annoying in book 5. I'm out
I just finished book 4, some chapters of which I started skimming (mostly the Venli/Eshonai throwback ones). I want to finish the series but it's such a slow burn it's getting tough, especially when I have other books on my TBR. I'll get around to book 5 sometime next year.
I did really enjoy the first book, kinda want to go read it again.
I think it's Sanderson's attempt at "epic fantasy" and it falls a bit flat for me as well compared to his tighter shorter novels. Of course we have to focus on the world building because it's literally Sanderson's only talent outside of just being a prolific writer. His characters are all very flat and similar. Especially the women. His character arcs are nothing to speak of. His relationship building is cringe worthy. But he always makes interesting worlds and explores the ramifications of culture and magic systems.
Back in the 1960s, when I was a tween- or teen-ager, I read every copy of Analog Science Fiction/ Science Fact I could put my hands on. You can now read lots of those stories on-line (like at https://www.freesfonline.net/Magazines2.html). Some of them have stood the test of time, but some are really really bad. John Campbell, the editor of Analog back then, was racist, and also convinced that smoking tobacco was a Good Thing. Many of the stories were written (by others) to convey those ideas; it's almost unusual for lead characters not to light up a cigarette.
It will be interesting to see how much of today's scifi holds up half a century from now---not because the science is wrong, but because the moral qualities will be judged outlandish.
The sudden all encompassing popularity of smoking is one of the most astonishing things in modern history. I can think nothing that would show better the power of advertising.
Everyone knew from the start smoking is unhealthy, or at least not healthy and addictive. Nicotine probably happened to help with the new kind of stress and frustration the higher tech world caused and so it kind of answered to a real need.
Now when pretty much nobody smokes anymore, at least nobody who don't belong to underclass, it is weird reading. I remember a film of some kind of an underwater station by Cousteau and people where smoking there! A place where air for breathing is sparse if anywhere.
DCC is êxcéllént. I have also been enjoying Pale Lights and The Years of Apocalypse.
If you enjoyed the DCC series, you should check out the live reading sessions from the audible narrator. He does such a fantastic job with the voices. I was legitimately surprised it was a single narrator.
https://youtu.be/yQ54CpkUoaM
Jeff Hays is an incredible narrator. It appears he only narrates LitRPG. Of which, DCC seems to be basically the only readable series. Would love to see him branch out.
That is odd. Most audiobook narrators narrate anything they are paid to.
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The first time I heard Donut speak I tried to find the name of the female narrator only to be surprised that the male narrator is just that good at female voices.