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    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

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    • L
      LandoCal126 0
      Banned
      Joined:

      Finishing up HST - Kingdom of Fear today. Going to start on the Steve Jobs Biography at some point this weekend.

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      • Megatron1505M
        Megatron1505
        見習いボス
        Joined:

        Just looking for my copy of "Underground" by Haruki Murakami to give it it's third read…..best book ever.

        Made in England, clothed in Japan, fed in America and drunk in Belgium !

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        • michaeljcrM
          michaeljcr
          Raw and Unwashed
          Joined:

          I thought it was high time I read some Westerns, so I'm starting with this one:

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          • georgeelG
            georgeel
            Joined:

            I'm up to page 251.

            So?

            Worth reading. I swear on all my denim.

            IH-888S-142OD

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            • LuciferL
              Lucifer
              Joined:

              @hectic:

              Dude, post here: http://www.ironheart.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=780.msg118626#msg118626

              I would happily discuss authors with you.

              😃

              Well, currently I'm reading up on Vernon Vinge, like him ok so far.

              When it comes to sci-fi I like Simmons, Banks, Hamilton, Reynolds and the rest of the classics, right now I'm looking for a large series, not necessarily the same storyline, but the same universe, like Reynolds or Banks. Suggestions?

              Seize the day and don't you cry.

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              • hecticH
                hectic
                Joined:

                Space opera? New weird? Something else?

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                • hecticH
                  hectic
                  Joined:

                  Richard Morgan. He has a core character called Takeshi Kovacs who spans several books.

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                  • hecticH
                    hectic
                    Joined:

                    Neal Asher too but pulpy/very prolific. Hard scifi

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                    • LuciferL
                      Lucifer
                      Joined:

                      Ah, I forgot to mention Morgan, have read the Angels-trilogy, his other sci-fi AND his fantasy books, so far I've only read "parasite" by asher (that is one of his, right?), any other of his books you would recommend?

                      Seize the day and don't you cry.

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                      • hecticH
                        hectic
                        Joined:

                        Not really an Asher fan TBH. There's a whole series about a war with these naughty alien crab things. My mate rates them

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                        • hecticH
                          hectic
                          Joined:

                          Check out Charles Stross too

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                          • hecticH
                            hectic
                            Joined:

                            Greg Egan is awesome

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                            • LuciferL
                              Lucifer
                              Joined:

                              I read Diaspora, but found it to be a bit on the  math-heavy side, are his other books similar? The story was awesome though.

                              Seize the day and don't you cry.

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                              • hecticH
                                hectic
                                Joined:

                                Quarantine is killer. Quantum heavy tho

                                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • michaeljcrM
                                  michaeljcr
                                  Raw and Unwashed
                                  Joined:

                                  @Lucifer:

                                  @hectic:

                                  Dude, post here: http://www.ironheart.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=780.msg118626#msg118626

                                  I would happily discuss authors with you.

                                  😃

                                  Well, currently I'm reading up on Vernon Vinge, like him ok so far.

                                  When it comes to sci-fi I like Simmons, Banks, Hamilton, Reynolds and the rest of the classics, right now I'm looking for a large series, not necessarily the same storyline, but the same universe, like Reynolds or Banks. Suggestions?

                                  It’s hard to beat Simmons, Vinge, Banks, Reynolds and Hamilton!

                                  Try Neal Asher, he’s good fun and very Banks/Hamilton, if a bit pulpier. Gridlinked (book one) isn't bad, but perhaps not the best, although they get really good fun after that. You can read The Skinner first if you like the sound of it, it's excellent and set in the same reality but following a different set of characters.

                                  Michael Cobley’s series is also pretty good, and well worth a look.

                                  If you want something a bit more action/adventure try Richard Morgan's Kovacs novels (Altered Carbon is the first), or John Scalzi's Old Man's War and the follow-ons are great. If you like the sound of full-on military space opera, read Joe Haldeman's Forever War and Heinlein's Starship Troopers for a great pro/anti-war debate or, for something on the pulp line, try the recently released in the UK, out for ages in the USA, Jack Campbell Lost Fleet series, or something by David Weber.

                                  If you want to go old school, read these few if you haven’t already:

                                  Dune
                                  Eon by Greg Bear
                                  Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series
                                  David Brin’s Uplift series (although the last one sucks, in my humble opinion, but the others are awesome).
                                  Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead and Children of The Mind by Orson Scott Card
                                  The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley
                                  The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
                                  Demon Princes books by Jack Vance
                                  Books of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
                                  The Runestaff books by Michael Moorcock (a controversial choice perhaps, but more SF than Elric and well worth it).

                                  If you want Near Future/cyberbunk/post-cyberpunk and bio-punk, read these:

                                  Neuromancer by William Gibson
                                  Virtual Light by Gibson
                                  Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
                                  Crypotnomicon by Stephenson
                                  Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling
                                  Distraction by Bruce Sterling
                                  Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley
                                  River of Gods by Ian McDonald

                                  If you want New Weird, or just plain weird, read these:

                                  Perdido Street Station by China Mievillie
                                  Kraken by China Mieville
                                  The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross

                                  Oh, read some Philip K. Dick, but choose wisely…

                                  That should keep you going for a while...

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                                  • hecticH
                                    hectic
                                    Joined:

                                    A pro post by a pro

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                                    • michaeljcrM
                                      michaeljcr
                                      Raw and Unwashed
                                      Joined:

                                      Ops, missed some replies there while I was typing!

                                      Re: Neal Asher, I'd say read The Skinner, it's my favourite of his and you don't need to read the following books if you don't want to. He is a bit derivative, and pulpy, but then everything is these days. I'd say he's more space opera than hard SF.

                                      Re: Greg Egan - great writer, scares me when he puts graphs in the books though! He's hard SF and then some!

                                      Try John c Wright's Golden Age series (US import only), they're great fun. Accelerando by Charles Stross is interesting, but structurally weak as it's a fix up from shorter work, if I remember correctly. I enjoy his Lovecraftien weird Bond style thrillers more than his straight SF.

                                      Chris Wooding's latest series is good fun. Pulp adventure, but really well done and entertaining.

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                                      • michaeljcrM
                                        michaeljcr
                                        Raw and Unwashed
                                        Joined:

                                        @hectic:

                                        A pro post by a pro

                                        Ha! You're too kind, years of selling the stuff and sometimes, when you stop to think about it, you forget whole authors!

                                        If you don't already use the site, I heartily recommend fantasticfiction.co.uk if you want to do some research, it's a wealth on info on authors, series order, what people search for etc. and covers all the major fiction genres.

                                        M.

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                                        • michaeljcrM
                                          michaeljcr
                                          Raw and Unwashed
                                          Joined:

                                          @hectic:

                                          Not really an Asher fan TBH. There's a whole series about a war with these naughty alien crab things. My mate rates them

                                          Very naughty crab-things. I like the Old Captains though (if that's what they're called?). And his monsters are very entertaining. He never did as well as you might have expected though.

                                          M

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                                          • hecticH
                                            hectic
                                            Joined:

                                            If you want a set of massive cubic books to last you a while, you could do worse than the Otherland series by Tad Williams

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