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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Need something to read
Posted by: Machiavelli Aug 22 2013, 06:57 PM
There is no proper topic, so i will simply post it here. ^^
I am going on vacation and i need a really nice sci-fi or fantasy-book to read. Preferably kindle edition and if possible in german. I just finished all Dresden Files and Codex Alera books and now i need something equivalent. Any proposals?
Posted by: Slide Aug 22 2013, 07:05 PM
Snowcrash. Lock the thread. If you have never read it read the first page and you will understand. It is amazing. Funny, deep, cyberpunkish, dark, and a relativaly lite read.
Posted by: Bearclaw Aug 22 2013, 07:18 PM
Slide wins the thread!
If you like Snowcrash, try Cryptonomicon. Even with a retro setting, it's still cyber-punk. It is not, however, a light read.
Posted by: Fiddler Aug 22 2013, 07:21 PM
Allen Steele's Coyote series is really great
Posted by: Slide Aug 22 2013, 07:24 PM
If you like Snowcrash, try Cryptonomicon. Even with a retro setting, it's still cyber-punk. It is not, however, a light read.
Yeah I was trying to read it and Quicksilver at the same time. They are some how linked, but no clue how....
Posted by: DWC Aug 22 2013, 07:26 PM
I'm always going to beat the drum for Hardwired by Walter John Williams.
http://www.amazon.com/Hardwired-ebook/dp/B005O5VR3U/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1377199354&sr=8-1&keywords=hardwired
BAM! 5 bucks for Kindle edition.
Edit: Plus, Hardwired has hovertanks.
Posted by: Lynchmob Aug 22 2013, 07:28 PM
Only loosely. Start with Cryptonomicon, it's shorter than trying to tackle all the books associated with Quicksilver. I don't I could've read both those books together especially with the cast size of Quicksilver. I'd need a spreadsheet just to keep up.
If you haven't read Snow Crash there's a chance you haven't read Neuromancer which I think is required reading for anyone whoever uses the phrases Matrix and Street Samurai in a sentence.
Posted by: DrZaius Aug 22 2013, 07:46 PM
If you haven't read Snow Crash there's a chance you haven't read Neuromancer which I think is required reading for anyone whoever uses the phrases Matrix and Street Samurai in a sentence.
Cryptonomicon is probably my favorite book. Snow Crash is awesome, and setting appropriate. I liked Stephenson's latest book, "Reamde", and felt one character in particular was very inspiring from a Shadowrun perspective.
-DrZ
Posted by: Sendaz Aug 22 2013, 07:51 PM
If you like Zelazny and want to be hacking Reality itself Webmage by Kelly McCullough is a fun Read. 1st in the series of 5 books.
The Laundry series by Charles Stross is also good.
Posted by: Tanegar Aug 22 2013, 08:28 PM
Iain M. Banks is one of my all-time favorite writers. I have to admit I'm not familiar with his non-SF output, but his Culture novels (and Against a Dark Background, a standalone novel in a different setting) are first-rate space opera. I also like Peter F. Hamilton; I just started the second book in his Void trilogy, but you may want to start with the Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) to get the background to the Void books.
If you like the Dresden Files, you may enjoy early Anita Blake, through Obsidian Butterfly. Be warned, though: starting with Narcissus in Chains, the series basically turns into endless vampire/werecreature BDSM porn, with a heaping dose of homoeroticism. Pity about Hamilton's http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CreatorBreakdown.
Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Aug 22 2013, 08:33 PM
If you like the Dresden Files, you may enjoy early Anita Blake, through Obsidian Butterfly. Be warned, though: starting with Narcissus in Chains, the series basically turns into endless vampire/werecreature BDSM porn, with a heaping dose of homoeroticism. Pity about Hamilton's http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CreatorBreakdown.
I think that Kim Harrison's Hollows Series is far better than Anita Blake, personally.
Series starts with Dead Witch Walking.
Posted by: Doc Chaos Aug 22 2013, 08:49 PM
Simon Morden's 'Equation of Life' and it's two follow-up books might interest you. Near-future SciFi, easy to read, yet captivating, often quite funny but never to the point where its dystopian setting gets ridiculed.
http://www.amazon.de/Equations-Samuil-Petrovitch-Novels-ebook/dp/B004Q9THNC/ref=tmm_kin_title_0
Posted by: FuelDrop Aug 22 2013, 10:29 PM
I have an as-yet unpublished manuscript that I'd be happy to let you look at. In English I'm afraid 
PM me if you're interested.
Posted by: Stahlseele Aug 22 2013, 11:28 PM
Have you read Gibsons Neuromancer etc.?
Posted by: kzt Aug 23 2013, 12:09 AM
Series starts with Dead Witch Walking.
The first 3 or so of Anita Blake are really great. About that point you begin to realize there is no there there, but they are still fun, but going downhill. The last few before Obsidian Butterfly are pretty bad, and everything after that might as well be random internet porn. Except that internet porn is free.
The Hollows has it's own problems. For example, if you kill in self-defense someone who is clearly trying to commit a mass murder you don't go to jail. Even if it is convenient to the plot.
I'm currently working my way back through Glen Cook's Garrett series. (All the titles have metal in the names). It's a detective in a magical fantasy world.
Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Aug 23 2013, 12:40 AM
True... I tried a few books beyond Obsidian Butterfly, but just could not get pas the Internet Porn aspects...
Well, the world of the Hollows is not like our World. And in fact diverges quite a bit; so I am willing to make allowances for things like that, as long as it makes a bit of sense in context with the world portrayed.
Posted by: Sendaz Aug 23 2013, 12:48 AM
When Tomatoes are outlawed, only outlaws will have tomatoes.
Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury is a good read if you like weird tech revolving around a sort of wireless setup utilizing an organic computer system that is attached to pretty much everyone.
Posted by: Backgammon Aug 23 2013, 12:56 AM
Marid Audran trilogy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Gravity_Fails
You won't regret it. Highly original and unique Arabian cyberpunk
Takeshi Kovacs trilogy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kovacs
You REALLY won't regret it. More on the transhuman side than cyberpunk, but Richard K Morgab is a god.
Black Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Man
More Richard K Morgan. More cyberpunk than transhuman. Very intelligent read, those Morgan's bias against southern US can be a little insulting if you're from there (which if you speak German, we can assume you're not)
Carlucci trilogy
http://books.google.com/books/about/Carlucci.html?id=miQPAAAACAAJ
Obscure authentic cyberpunk. Some really good and original ideas.
Posted by: kzt Aug 23 2013, 12:58 AM
Indeed. Those pizza parlors are just dens of iniquity.
It's got serious flashes of brilliance, but the continuity is kind of bad in places.
Posted by: Sendaz Aug 23 2013, 01:01 AM
Schnell Y'all?
Posted by: vladski Aug 23 2013, 06:49 AM
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
I highly recommend this. Great futuristic world very akin to Shadowrun (minus the magic, of course) and the Islamic/Arabic setting makes it very unique. I figure this is what SR is like in the middle east.
I read it a long, long time ago and loved it. It was before I was introduced to SR. In fact it was pretty much my introduction to cyberpunk, having read it before SR, Gibson etc. I couldn't seem to get into the sequel but I can't remember why now; I vaguely seem to remember not liking the direction the main character takes. I should try it again now that 20 years or so have passed.
Vlad
Edited to add:
Did a quick google search and found this rather recent
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/38914/when-gravity-fails-film-is-cool-and-weird-and-awesome-says-writer/ that made me go "COOL!" I can't wait!
V.
Posted by: Epicedion Aug 23 2013, 07:00 AM
The collected short stories of Philip K. Dick.
Posted by: Umidori Aug 23 2013, 07:17 AM
It's neither sci-fi nor fantasy, but I'll recommend it anyway - The Count of Monte Cristo.
Get it unabridged. Heck, get it in the original French if you can read it that way. Get it with annotations, so that the historical context and finer details don't evade you. And read it slowly, a chapter or two at a time, to mimic it's original episodic publishing.
~Umi
Posted by: Stahlseele Aug 23 2013, 08:27 AM
http://www.amazon.de/Gefallene-Engel-Larry-Niven/dp/345313317X
Fallen Angels.
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Michael Flynn.
Hard SciFi Story about a whie earth scenario in which the greens won and science is seen as evil sorcery.
Posted by: Medicineman Aug 23 2013, 09:26 AM
Always !
Any Sci-Fi Novel with theses two is a guaranteed Hit !!!(Footfall, der Splitter im Auge Gottes,)
some oldschool advice from me :
Ringworld /Ringwelt
the Stainless Steel Rat /die Edelstahlratte
with a dance in the Cracks
Medicineman
Posted by: Stahlseele Aug 23 2013, 10:05 AM
Then there's the novel Epic.
A World in which something like WOW is used to do Government things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_(novel)
Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Aug 23 2013, 03:18 PM
Indeed...
Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Aug 23 2013, 03:21 PM
Any Sci-Fi Novel with theses two is a guaranteed Hit !!!(Footfall, der Splitter im Auge Gottes,)
some oldschool advice from me :
Ringworld /Ringwelt
the Stainless Steel Rat /die Edelstahlratte
with a dance in the Cracks
Medicineman
Wow... The Stainless Steel Rat... Oldie but a goodie.
Posted by: Medicineman Aug 23 2013, 04:17 PM
Reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy for more than 30 Years gives me a few more options than only RPG Novels 
HokaHey
Medicineman
Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Aug 23 2013, 04:33 PM
HokaHey
Medicineman
T'is True...
I read almost anything...
Posted by: Fiddler Aug 23 2013, 05:44 PM
Ahh books the great escape from the world, speaking of RPGs and books the Dream Park series of novels should be listed. Still need to start the moon maze game.
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