The Kiwifarms Unofficial Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club

[Old King Koaleamos]

Would you consider historical fiction for some month's theme?
I have some works I'd suggest as I want to read them myself and some works I read and found great.

Alt-History SFF? Historical Fantasy? Or just "history" as a theme?

 

[Starman John]

I don't read sci/fi and fantasy as much as i want to and recently i have been thinking of reading the Hyperion Cantos and The Book of the New Sun since i heard good things about both. Any tips or advice on which one i should read first or how i should approach them when reading?

 

[LordOfZhbagva]

Yeah, suggestions are always good.

So far, I've not dipped into it much, but the few works I read and can certainly vouch for are Geza Gardonyi's Eclipse of the Crescent Moon (or Stars over/of Eger), a work focusing on the Ottoman siege of Eger, a truly miraculous victory of the Hungarian defenders in 1552, when two thousand Hungarians beat back 30-40 thousand Ottoman besiegers and his other popular work, Slave of the Huns/Invisible man/Hidden amongst Huns, a work focused on a Eastern Roman slave who defects to the Huns and fights on the Catalaunian fields.
I've also been reading Cornwells Warlord trilogy on a more historical version of king Arthur and I can recommend the first book (Winter King) as a standalone as it ends on a very high note.
As for works I'd like to read, Maurice Druon's Iron King seems to be rather interesting. We could also slip in more Dan Simmons as his Terror is also focused on a historical even, but with a supernatural twist (and Terror is such a good book). I'd also be interested in the Hussite trilogy by Sapkowski, with the first book being The tower of fools.

Alt-History SFF? Historical Fantasy? Or just "history" as a theme?

Historical fiction and fantasy I think would be good. I think alt history could be good for its own month.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

I don't read sci/fi and fantasy as much as i want to and recently i have been thinking of reading the Hyperion Cantos and The Book of the New Sun since i heard good things about both. Any tips or advice on which one i should read first or how i should approach them when reading?

Simmons is a straightforward read here.

Wolfe is. . . not so much, but he's earned his rep. Pick Simmons if you like variety here. Pick Wolfe if you want to be challenged a bit.

So far, I've not dipped into it much, but the few works I read and can certainly vouch for are Geza Gardonyi's Eclipse of the Crescent Moon (or Stars over/of Eger), a work focusing on the Ottoman siege of Eger, a truly miraculous victory of the Hungarian defenders in 1552, when two thousand Hungarians beat back 30-40 thousand Ottoman besiegers and his other popular work, Slave of the Huns/Invisible man/Hidden amongst Huns, a work focused on a Eastern Roman slave who defects to the Huns and fights on the Catalaunian fields.
I've also been reading Cornwells Warlord trilogy on a more historical version of king Arthur and I can recommend the first book (Winter King) as a standalone as it ends on a very high note.
As for works I'd like to read, Maurice Druon's Iron King seems to be rather interesting. We could also slip in more Dan Simmons as his Terror is also focused on a historical even, but with a supernatural twist (and Terror is such a good book). I'd also be interested in the Hussite trilogy by Sapkowski, with the first book being The tower of fools.

Historical fiction and fantasy I think would be good. I think alt history could be good for its own month.

I feel like Historical Fiction probably belongs in a general "Men's Fiction" reading thread where we could just smash classics, historical fiction, adventure, pulps, and crime/mystery material.

Avram Davidson's got a lot of really good stuff. The Phoenix and The Mirror was a good historical fantasy work based on the medieval idea of Vergil being a sorcerer/alchemist. Davidson shows his breadth of knowledge and his high level prose in this. I'd definitely call him one of the literary descendents of Clark Ashton Smith just because of what I've read of his prose.

As for the Davidson I wanna recommend? Peregrine Primus. Historical Fantasy of sorts.


For other options

Tim Powers is supposedly pretty good. The Anubis Gates, On Stranger Tides, and The Drawing of the Dark are all on my shelf waiting for a read.

F Paul Wilson could also be fun. I've got the start of his big universe in "The Keep", ready to read. It's a pulpy horror adventure involving Nazis and Vampires.

Thinking of other "historical fantasy" options. C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry tales are historically set. So are Howards' Solomon Kane stories. There's David Drake's Vettius stories and Richard Tierney's Simon of Gitta stories if you want more S&S in Rome.

If you all want something purely historical fiction, there's always Flashman by Fraser, or Captain Blood by Sabatini. Or go a little more out there with Talbot Mundy or Harold Lamb.

 

[Morridowfag]

F Paul Wilson could also be fun. I've got the start of his big universe in "The Keep", ready to read. It's a pulpy horror adventure involving Nazis and Vampires.

Unfortunately only The Keep will really fall into that category (really more flirts with it). The rest of that series and the Repairman Jack books that spun off it are generally centered around modern-day-at-the-time-of-writing New York and focus more on horror and the characters being caught in a cosmic war. Great reads but the only other time they get close is the Early Jack trilogy having one of the plotlines be the leadup to the '93 WTC bombing.

 

[Pluciferous]

Tim Powers is supposedly pretty good. The Anubis Gates, On Stranger Tides, and The Drawing of the Dark are all on my shelf waiting for a read.

Declare is incredibly good.

 

[Puboid]

Uneducated, unrefined opinion incoming, I read sci fi like an alcoholic drinks bud light, I know I like it, I could tell you some things I like about it, but I can't really give you a deep breakdown of it.
Anyways, I adore PSS, it was the first of China's books that I read. My mom brought a copy home for me on a whim when I was 16 cause it was getting cycled out of the library pool due to damage. Probably crushed it in two days, I definitely remember finishing it at like 4 in the morning in my bed and just laying there being sad it was over. Like some other people have said, one of it's huge strengths is the characterization of the city and the worldbuilding. I'm a sucker for themes with gross and gritty stuff in novels now and I think this book probably had a bigger impact on me due it being the first one I read with these more adult themes and stuff. Honestly I don't really have anything bad to say, it was hugely impactful on me at the time and I've read and enjoyed pretty much all of China's other stuff. Yes his politics are gay and lame, I'm sure if looked I could see social messages and parallels to current politics but to be honest I don't want to, I want to read a good book and enjoy it.

Spoiler: Some shit I liked

Some high points: protagonist, world building, the adventurers.
I liked Isaac, I've always looked fondly on rundown scientist type characters plugging away on weird shit.
The world building is great, the amount of secret societies and little groups with their own motivations that Isaac interacts with really fleshes out the world and makes it feel like a city teeming with intrigue. I especially love the section where Isaac get's the help of the electricians guild, he has his ulterior motive, they have their ulterior motive, it just adds a lot of depth to the world.
The section with the mercenary group that they hire was awesome. I feel like in a typical fantasy book they would have become central characters, instead they were exactly what they would be, contractors there to do a job. I love that they do their thing and then the surviving members (or member I can't remember how many survive) just peace out with their pay to lay low.

With regards to Children of Time, I think I read half of it, for some reason I just wasn't gripped, I did like the crumbling generation ship parts but overall I think I found it too stressful of a read, which is funny cause I've blasted through the first two books of The Night's Dawn trilogy and that definitely isn't a very chipper series. To be fair to it I can be weirdly fickle about books.

To sum it up, I love China Meiville, I love PSS, probably cause it was an impactful book read as a teenager, your milage may vary. At least China hasn't started using neo pronouns in his books like fucking Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Broadside]

Started reading Wheel of Time and while I think Jordan is good at crafting characters (I'm only at chapter 4 fwiw), I have to say, so far his ability or rather lack thereof, to write dialogue is very noticeable. It's literal high school tier levels of quips and exposition. Is it all like this? I find myself more and more tempted to sack the series in and start on Malazan but I'm basically reading all these series as background study for my own writing, so idk.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Started reading Wheel of Time and while I think Jordan is good at crafting characters (I'm only at chapter 4 fwiw), I have to say, so far his ability or rather lack thereof, to write dialogue is very noticeable. It's literal high school tier levels of quips and exposition. Is it all like this? I find myself more and more tempted to sack the series in and start on Malazan but I'm basically reading all these series as background study for my own writing, so idk.

He's better with the world building, yeah.

 

[Polyboros2]

I'm about a third of the way through Children of Time. So far I'm hohum on it, I'll save more specifics for when I'm finished in a spoilered post.

However, what I am finding interesting about it is similarities to another book I read a while back called Exodus: The Archimedes Engine. It's a bit of an explaination, but Wizards of the Coast(owners of Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons) either bought or formed a video games studio with former Bioware devs, the creators of Mass Effect, to make a spiritual sequel. It's a massive messy lore clusterfuck, and I put that more on the studio than the writer whom I still think made an ok novel out of it. However I have a feeling Children of Time possibly influenced premise for the game, basically; arkships, Earth dead, and descendants of the Earth have forced evolved and essentially are aliens at this point(though in Exodus there are thousands of engineered humans that make up the aliens instead of other life) while arkships people remain human. It also references the idea of "uplifted" animals that are engineered to be more servile and iirc both use the same term for it.

Kinda curious if they really cribbed the notes off of Children of Time or if they both share a common inspiration.

 

[Greedy Fly]

It's a massive messy lore clusterfuck, and I put that more on the studio than the writer whom I still think made an ok novel out of it.

Huh, a quick search tells me the author was Peter Hamilton? I enjoyed his Void trilogy, though I don't think I've read any of his more recent stuff.