Not a fanThis book, I feel like Greg Bear got excited by way too many ideas, tried to stuff too many of them into the book. It ended up feeling quite superficial for me.
Eon (1985)
Others: Mostly negative "Perhaps it wasn't from our time, perhaps it wasn't even from our universe, but perhaps the arrival of the 300 km long stone was the answer to humanity's desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lies Thistledown: the remnants of a human society, versed in English, Russian and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war, but the government and scientists are unable to decide how to use this knowledge. Deeper still within the stone is the Way. For some the Way means salvation from death, for others it is a parallel world where loved ones live again. But, unlike Thistledown, the Way is not entirely dead, and the inhabitants hold the knowledge of a present war, over a million miles away, using weapons far more deadly than any that mankind has ever conceived. "
- ISBN:
- 9780765380494
- Length:
- 508 pages
Genres: fantasy, science fiction
Lists: …
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The Steerswoman
Rosemary Kirstein
1989 · 279 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveIf you ask, she must answer. A steerswoman's knowledge is shared with any who request it; no steerswoman may refuse a question, and no steerswoman may answer with anything but the truth. And if she asks, you must answer. It is the other side of tradition's contract -- and if you refuse the question, or lie, no steerswoman will ever again answer even your most casual question. And so, the steerswomen — always seeking, always investigating — have gathered more and more knowledge about the world they traveled, and they share that knowledge freely. Until the day that the steerswoman Rowan begins asking innocent questions about one small, lovely, inexplicable object… Her discoveries grow stranger and deeper, and more dangerous, until suddenly she finds she must flee or fight for her life. Or worse -- lie. Because one kind of knowledge has always been denied the steerswomen: Magic. The first book in the series and a great start. These books are ones that I read when I want to renew my love for science and discovery.
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Also fantasy and science fiction78%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations22%Midworld
Alan Dean Foster
1975 · 196 pages · 5 reviews
Others: NegativeFrom the rich imagination of science fiction great Alan Dean Foster comes the story of Midworld, a Humanx Commonwealth planet that’s equally fragile and hostile. Covered by a lush rainforest, Midworld is home to a primitive society that lives in harmony with the natural world. But the arrival of an exploitative human company, whose workers know nothing of Midworld’s delicate ecosystem, sparks a conflict. Should Midworld’s villagers aid the humans or stand against them? The hero of Foster’s addictive page-turner, Born, decides to lead two humans across the perilous jungle. His choice propels Midworld toward annihilation—and leads him headlong into a battle for survival.
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Also fantasy and science fiction80%A creator reacted alike13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations7%Book of the New Sun
Gene Wolfe
1983 · 950 pages · 9 reviews
Others: MixedThe Book of the New Sun is set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wondrous ways, in a time when our present culture is no longer even a memory. Severian, the central character, is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est. This edition contains the first four volumes of the series.
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Also fantasy and science fiction80%A creator reacted alike13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations7%The Game-players of Titan
Philip K. Dick
1963 · 191 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Mostly negativeThe Game-Players of Titan is a 1963 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Pete Garden, the protagonist, is one of several residents who own large swathes of property in a depopulated, post-apocalyptic future world. These residents are organized in groups of regular competitors who play a board game called "Bluff". These contestants (or "Bindmen") stake their property, marriages and future status as eligible game players on its outcomes. Pete also experiences bipolar disorder, which may adversely affect his competence as a Game participant. The Game is administered by amorphous, silicon-based aliens from Titan, Saturn's largest satellite. These creatures, known as the vugs, are obsessed with gambling. In addition, the Game's exogamy helps to promote human fertility after the devastation of global warfare, after satellite-borne "Henkel Radiation" weaponry from Red China sterilized much of the Earth's population. The vugs exert hegemony over Earth but do not occupy it as such. Instead, it is visualised as a paternalistic relationship. Moreover, while the vugs are telepaths, they do not allow the use of human telepathy or precognition within the context of the Game. The vugs are also involved within human society, using induced hallucination to maintain the semblance of human form. They also perpetuate the charade through the use of physical human shells or simulacra.
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Also fantasy and science fiction81%A creator reacted alike13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations6%Timequake
Kurt Vonnegut
1997 · 219 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedOn February 13th, 2001, according to Vonnegut, the universe will tire momentarily of expanding forever. What's the point? Maybe it would be more fun to shrink for a change, and have a reunion of all the stuff back where it began. Then it could make a great big BANG again. It will shrink back to February 17th, 1991, but will then decide that expansion is the way to go, after all. As time marches on once more to 2001, though, Vonnegut and Trout and everybody else and everything else will have to do exactly what they did the first time through the decade, for good or ill: marry the wrong person, bet on the wrong horse. Whatever! Ten years of deja vu all over again! At least deja vu doesn't cause physical injury and property damage.
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Also fantasy and science fiction81%A creator reacted alike14%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations5%Iraq + 100
Hassan Blasim
2016 · 224 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedIraq + 100 poses a question to contemporary Iraqi writers: what might your home city look like in the year 2103 exactly 100 years after the disastrous American and British-led invasion of Iraq? How might that war reach across a century of repair and rebirth, and affect the state of the country its politics, its religion, its language, its culture and how might Iraq have finally escaped its chaos, and found its own peace, a hundred years down the line? As well as being an exercise in escaping the politics of the present, this anthology is also an opportunity for a hotbed of contemporary Arabic writers to offer its own spin on science fiction and fantasy.
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Not a fan
MixedI like the first half of the book a similar amount to blood music it's a big dumb object story I think the object is really intriguing... then halfway through the book it kind of takes a bit of a turn and I really just didn't care for a lot of what happened in the back half
Mixedtop half of it is a great like James Cameron movie and then it gets lost in its own sauce
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