Recreational Literary Endeavors

seitora

Well-Known Member
I recently realised that for all that I supposedly love science-fiction, I have apparently read almost no hard science fiction in my life, outside of the Foundation series, and not even that much soft science fiction outside of Star Wars. Now trying to catch up and read some things.

I read Sundiver, the first book in the Uplift series. I guess this one is actually a little divorced from the timeline of the rest of the series, basically showing the very basic beginnings of the new era humanity finds itself in? The writing style in this book seems really strange. It's more than just the stereotype of hard science fiction presenting cool ideas but having a relatively lacklustre story proper. A lot of terms and background events are thrown at the reader without ever really trying to elucidate on it, outside of a few repeat mentions to give ever slightly more context. The writing itself seems flighty, sometimes having scenes that are literally only a half a page long before skipping over to another point of view. There's a weird crescendo and rising action for a false climax about two thirds of the way through the book, and it struggles to build up after to the real climax. There's innuendo, both sexual and otherwise, that feels strangely sanitised. More amusingly, the story is actually a mystery novel wrapped up in a science fiction shell.

My library offered this as a digital read, so that's what I used, otherwise it would take weeks to get a physical copy. I feel like I should have, since apparently the book would have had a map of the in-story starship about half the book takes place on, which would give a better read on a lot of the scenes. Also, this may be the first book I've read in...maybe ever, where I absolutely struggled to visualise the scene descriptions. A lot of that was descriptions of the sun surface, trying to describe filaments and spicules in ways that never really clicked.

Anyways, I'll still give the next book a rise, since that's apparently the proper start of the series.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Hmmm... How are you defining HARD vs. SOFT Science Fiction, meaning just where are you drawing that line in the sand between the two...

I've read Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, and others like Douglas Adams... I quite liked things like Mote in Gods Eye and the Ringworld saga, Hitchhikers Guide and Dirk Gentley Sagas despite their age.

- I've read literally hundreds of Star Trek, dozens of Babylon 5, a number of older Star Wars expanded universe novels.

- I've read literally a few dozen Star Trek tech manuals and even a couple tech manuals for Babylon 5.

- I've read some old Harlequin Super romance, which includes some sci-fi and mystery, even though it centers on romance.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
To be honest, I couldn't get into hard scifi. I tried Asimov's Foundation series, and found it just too dense for me.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
Thanks, I'll give them a look.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Hmmm... How are you defining HARD vs. SOFT Science Fiction, meaning just where are you drawing that line in the sand between the two...
I don't quite go with the nominal hard vs soft definition where they divide it up into hard sciences versus social sciences. To me, 'hard' science fiction would be anything where the plot or setting relies on futuristic technology and/or scientific concepts to drive the plot, or at least substantially alter how society is formed. Whereas 'soft' science fiction would basically be a story that could potentially be set in modern day Earth or the past, but is instead set in the future, in space.

Star Wars would be almost 100% soft science fiction by that standard.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be also mostly soft science. It uses some scientific devices such as the Infinite Improbability Drive or concepts like the Total Perspective Vortex to drive absurdist comedy, but itself doesn't drive the plot or the setting.

Ender's Game would straddle that line. It's essentially a bloody boarding school followed by a counterattack war against invaders, but global resource scarcity and the overhanging threat of another potential alien invasion drive a subtle change in the setting's society and politics, and the zero-g battle school drives over half the plot of the book.

Foundation series I would classify as being hard science by my above standard. Psychohistory alone drives the very core of the series.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Hmmm... I was envisioning it being split more along the lines of just how much science a storyline relies on in the plot, vs. instead just relying on characterization and glossing over of the science fiction portion.

By *that*, I would think Star Wars, B5, and Battlestar Galactica would be soft, Star Trek would be borderline depending on the individual episode or book, and stories like those by Larry Niven or Jerry Pournelle would be hard.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I read Furies of Calderon, the first book in the Codex Alera series

The middle part of the book feels kind of exhausting, in that it becomes very obvious for a while of time that the protagonists can essentially never have anything go right for them. Every time it looks lie they may have a ray of hope, somebody gets killed, some really bad weather happens, or an unexpected third party somehow intervenes at the exact worst timing.

A couple of interesting things that went in a different direction than I would expect. The protagonist rescues a girl out in the middle of a storm. Normally, you would expect the protagonist and the girl to hook up. Instead, the girl ends up hooking with the protagonist's uncle, Bernard (who, to be fair, is still an important figure in the book in his own right). The protagonist, Tavi, is also special in a negative way. Essentially, he is a cripple, since he cannot wield elemental spirits like every other human can at an age that he really should have contracted one by then. And there's no payoff whatsoever in this book. There's only a very couple of vague hints he might even be the son of somebody special, instead of anything blatant. Tavi lives with his uncle Bernard and his aunt Isana (siblings, not husband and wife). Interestingly, it's not once said if it was a brother or sister of theirs that is Tavi's parent, or even a name. There is a girl from a foreign tribe Tavi goes off on a dangerous expedition with about two-thirds through. It's implied they have some sort of spiritual bonding at the end, and maybe it is possible that she is actually his elemental spirit, somehow. Of course, this is the first in a six-book series, so the rest only will get revealed later.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I read Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code, the third book in the series
 

AoMythology

Apparently a report-er
I read Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code, the third book in the series
Is that the one with that device, The Cube? Which Artemis made and his attempt to sell it- backfired spectacularly...
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Yep, that is correct. That is the one. Borrowed it to read for while I was on my flights (well, it only lasted through my first flight, but better than nothing...)
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Writing style and plot flows alright. I think the biggest disappointment is that after the initial set-up at the start of the book, Artemis basically never gets tripped up by a single thing after that. Not even an inconvenient third-party interference or anything. The Cube also becomes a plot MacGuffin after it gets stolen, where the only things that it's convenient for is getting Holly up to the surface again, and for Foaly to remote server into it to pretend to be an AI.
 

AoMythology

Apparently a report-er
Writing style and plot flows alright. I think the biggest disappointment is that after the initial set-up at the start of the book, Artemis basically never gets tripped up by a single thing after that. Not even an inconvenient third-party interference or anything. The Cube also becomes a plot MacGuffin after it gets stolen, where the only things that it's convenient for is getting Holly up to the surface again, and for Foaly to remote server into it to pretend to be an AI.
From what I remember, the book basically consisted of a Xanatos Gambit by Artemis, with the tension mostly being about what exactly he had set up. Honestly, I don't think I would mind that kind of plot even today. Whether I would find it especially engaging... it's a tossup.

As for the Cube, it's meant to be highly obsolete by fairy standards, so, yeah. It couldn't have been more useful than that...

If you read one of the other installments, please write about it so that I can remember and feel nostalgia. :p I mean, so that we can talk about it... :D
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I read Pennyroyal Academy, written by M.A. Larson. The story takes place in a world where basically all fairy tales are true. No, not the world of Remnant. The setting is that all witches are evil and all princesses are good, and the two are essentially mortal enemies. There are dragons and knights in there too with dragons being nominally bad guys, somewhat perpendicular to the main conflict. The main character, Evie, is a semi-amnesiac girl raised by dragons who decides to go enlist in a school for training princesses, which focuses on both mental grit and actual goodness and courage of the heart.

The prose is actually really good. Lots of description and metaphor blended in well.

Perhaps the strongest part of the book is that it's one of the rare times I feel the protagonist's development as a person is actually realistic and on a timely pacing. Evie goes from being a timid, mousy girl at the start to truly beginning to shake off her flaws by the end of the book and facing her fears head-on. With that, one of the confusing elements is...I can't actually tell how old the main cast is. I think Evie is supposed to be 15, but it feels all over the place. Evie honestly feels like a pre-teen at some points in mentality, and that may be more a result of her being raised by dragons than literally being 11 or 12, but the actions and mentality of some of the other girls seems stuck in that same age, too.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Atrocity Archives, the first book in The Laundry Files. It's honestly a bit of a chore to trudge through at times, buried in mathematical lingo in parts, but once I get caught up to speed on some of the references, it was nice to read. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to read up on said references and learn some math history. It feels weirdly episodic in three parts, even if the first two parts are close together.

@Glimmervoid I'm tagging you since I think you wrote several fanfics for this series some years back?
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I read The Opal Deception, the fourth book in the Artemis Fowl series. I'm vaguely surprised by the amount of violence and constant close calls with death in this story. It really ups the amp some even with some of the darker bits in earlier books. It's a little interesting to see Artemis constantly behind and desperately rushing to catch up through the majority of the book, with above said close calls, until he finally gets up to speed and outwits the villain near the end. As opposed to previous books, where he usually starts off with a plan to gain money or power of some sort, and then has the plan get derailed.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Academy's Fury, the second book in the Codex Alera series

This is a book where a timeskip...actually changes character dynamics, instead of just trying to go 'oh these characters got taller and stronger over the timeskip'. The main characters all show some progression in their relations with each other, and they've learned things over the past two years (even if we get a psyche-out where it looks like Tavi is still timid and weak). The pacing in the middle gets bogged down where it becomes boring political intrigue in one city mixed with skirmishes in a completely different area. Still, the capital city is definitely a lot more lively than the rural, podunk area of the Calderon introduced in the first book where 95% of it takes place.

It's a nitpick, but I feel like the military party that fights all the above-mentioned skirmishes...never seems to run out of soldiers. There's never really a defined number of legionnaires at the start, and they take heavy casualties with each skirmish, so each fight I'm thinking, "Oh, this is where they're finally down to their last dregs of manpower", only to just have enough fighters to regroup for one more last stand.

Also, my comment on the first book of the series:

...it becomes very obvious for a while of time that the protagonists can essentially never have anything go right for them. Every time it looks lie they may have a ray of hope, somebody gets killed, some really bad weather happens, or an unexpected third party somehow intervenes at the exact worst timing.
Is EXACTLY THE SAME here.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Cursor's Fury, third book in the Codex Alera series

The worldbuilding of the previous two books finally kicks in to a decently more action-packed book. Tavi has a fairly strong character development arc through all three. He's never been a coward, but he's a lot more forthcoming with his courage and thinking things over and stepping up to take the lead after he's been thrust into the spotlight, instead of merely rising to the occasion but constantly being caught on his back foot.

The criticism I mentioned to the previous book of how the middle arc of the book always seems to be an unending parade of disasters for the good guys isn't quite as warranted here. It's still there, but nowhere near as bad. In turn, I have to voice another complaint: the amount of coincidences that are used to make the plot run is still staggering. In the previous book, somebody got taken out of commission literally mere minutes before a messenger arrived with news that would have completely derailed the bad guys plan if the person out of commission was still conscious. In this book, somebody steals a moneybag from the right person at the right time that through sheer blind luck ends up derailing the bad guys plan later on.

Honestly, I'm actually a little disappointed that Tavi does in turn out to be Septemus' son. I truly was just kind of hoping he'd be a regular kid born out of wedlock with one of the legionnaires, but alas. Maybe I should have clued in earlier that Tavi is literally short for Octavian.

I did notice that the narrative was very mum about who Bernard and Isana's third sibling were. Alia wasn't even mentioned by name, gender, or age I think in book 1, and was only very briefly mentioned in book 2 as being a 16-year-old female. At that time, I had actually figured Isana could have been Tavi's mom instead, especially since she revealed she had been with child once and had a man who 'went away', but that it was going to me ambiguous until it actually revealed whose son Tavi really was.

The ending...I realise the five years connection. I'm just not sure if it's supposed to be five years that Tavi has been away from Isana, so she can't suppress his ability to develop furycrafting at that point. Or if Tavi getting his connection with Kitai 'reset' his stunted development somehow to start forming. Maybe that's something mentioned in the next couple of books. But speaking of Kitai's connection, so she gets furycrafting too. Huh. Cap off the latest in a long lineup of large coincidences for the series.

Also, I had clued in that Fidelias was out of the picture for the entire book. I figured he had been acting in secret in a key role somewhere. Haha, I just didn't expect it was right under Tavi's nose.

I'm also not really a fan of the whole subplot with Isana and Fade. One, because it's honestly boring for the longest stretch. Two, it seems designed entirely to remove the two out of the field during a civil war so they can't go out and fight. Three, with how powerful healing has been made in the setting thus far, it seems lame that something like an infection from weapon oil with some lizard oil mixed in would be so difficult to heal. I get that it's necessary for the reveal of Isana's relationship and Tavi's parents, but I wish it would have been done in some other method.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Captain's Fury, fourth book in the Codex Alera series.

Some of the writing issues that popped up in the earlier books are now all but gone, and now we get some stronger, steadier writing. The majority of the book consists of sneaking-in and breaking-out sequences, which drag on after a while, but still enjoyable overall. That said, while several of the characters are getting well-developed and fleshed-out, some of the others who have been there since the first or second book have been continuously falling by the way side. Tavi's not-quite-married-yet girlfriend Kitai doesn't really get much character development, but the author shows he can write good female characters, such as with Tavi's aunt, Isana, or the Cursor Amara.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Princeps' Fury, fifth book in the Codex Alera series. One more to go after this, but there's 3 holds in front of me for the last book :(

I think I finally realised another issue I have with the writing in the Codex Alera. The way the narratives are split up among three or four different subplots, and the way the plot moves along in each book...there never really feels like a proper 'climax' in each book
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I read The Jennifer Morgue, second book in the Laundry Files series

@Glimmervoid again

It's somewhat easier to read compared to the first book, and the plot moves along at a brisker pace. I absolute adore a lot of the metaphors and figures of speech used in the book, and can only wish I had a fraction of the talent the author does at that. The plot is moderately entertaining. Like the first book and the series overall, it crosses programming and math concepts with demonology and occult rituals, with a setting of the bureaucratic civil service to end all bureaucracies. In this book, the protagonist has to stop a villain looking to retrieve ancient alien technology from the ocean's depths to inevitably take over the world, only to realise same said villain has invoked a Hero's Journey ritual forcing the protagonist to follow the plot progression of a James Bond flick.

Despite that, I think I will stop reading the series here. There's just something about the writing style that seems to slow me down when reading, and looking for something else to do. I think it may be the detached character perspective, where I just don't really feel the human connection with the protagonist, at all?
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I finished First Lord's Fury, the final book of the Codex Alera series.

I enjoyed the series overall. It shows some weaknesses, but that's not surprising with it being a book a year (but at least it was a book a year. lol. Butcher's been struggling with writing the last decade).
 
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