[Visor]

Finally read "A Memory Called Empire" and liked it.

I plan to check "The Three Body Problem" out of the Library and also on my list is to get "American Gods".

  A while back when I made more time for recreational reading, I was trying to decide whether to buy American gods or Anansi Boys, I opted for the latter. After later seeing the promos for the "Gods" TV series I think I got the better of the two. Anansi reminded me a lot of Satanic Verses, but much shorter and much more digestible, just about as weird though.

[hopfenundmalz]

Someone asked Neil Gaimon if the upcoming show based on Anasi Boys would better than American Gods. He replied something along the lines of "yes it will be I'm producing it". He has been said to be disappointed with the American Gods show.

[Visor]

   The Gods promos were enough to keep me from watching the show, I might still read the book someday.
   As for the list, any list of top SF books that doesn't include anything from Niven & Pournelle or Zelazny but does include Starship Troopers [not one of Heinlein's best IMO] isn't much of a list in my mind.

[hopfenundmalz]

   The Gods promos were enough to keep me from watching the show, I might still read the book someday.
   As for the list, any list of top SF books that doesn't include anything from Niven & Pournelle or Zelazny but does include Starship Troopers [not one of Heinlein's best IMO] isn't much of a list in my mind.

So many good ones didn’t  make the list. It is a list, so it is flawed of course. It did get me to read a couple of new books, so it succeeded  on that.

[dbeechum]

All "best of" lists are inherently flawed, but like Jeff, I've gobbled down a few. (The Murderbot Diaries are fun)

And I suspect for Heinlein - they used Starship, not because it's one of his best, but because of the long reaching impact it's had. (Also, man, I re-read F-451 the other year and it's even more prescient now in an age of youtube, podcasts and Tiktoks)

   As for the list, any list of top SF books that doesn't include anything from Niven & Pournelle or Zelazny but does include Starship Troopers [not one of Heinlein's best IMO] isn't much of a list in my mind.

So many good ones didn’t  make the list. It is a list, so it is flawed of course. It did get me to read a couple of new books, so it succeeded  on that.

[hopfenundmalz]

The Three Body Problem is the best Science Fiction I have read in decades. Best book I've read in a number of years. Will find the sequels at the Library.

Just finished the sequal "The Dark Forest", and am impressed. The plot takes many twists after a slow start, 1/3 of the way in it shifted gears.

[Wilbur]

Just finished the Three Body Problem. The interlacing with Chinese history was really interesting, and it was a very compelling read. It reminded me of what Asimov wrote of his earlier Foundation novels whenever his publisher made him write a new one-there was no action and nothing happening but I couldn't put it down. It's the weirdest feeling because I enjoyed it, devoured it over the past few days, but it didn't really click with me. The Binti trilogy was great, and I'm finally getting to The Left Hand of Darkness. Hopefully I have enough time to read a few more from this list before my book backlog gets too long.

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[Andy Farke]

Just finished the Three Body Problem. The interlacing with Chinese history was really interesting, and it was a very compelling read. It reminded me of what Asimov wrote of his earlier Foundation novels whenever his publisher made him write a new one-there was no action and nothing happening but I couldn't put it down. It's the weirdest feeling because I enjoyed it, devoured it over the past few days, but it didn't really click with me. The Binti trilogy was great, and I'm finally getting to The Left Hand of Darkness. Hopefully I have enough time to read a few more from this list before my book backlog gets too long.

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I quite enjoyed Three Body Problem, and finished out the series. Probably my favorite thing was its twist on so many "first contact" tropes. Ken Liu (who translated Three Body Problem) also was translator for an anthology of contemporary Chinese sci-fi, "Broken Stars." Highly recommended, if you are interested in exploring more sci-fi outside the usual authors. Not all of the stories completely clicked with me (but is that true of any anthology?), but many of them were really great.


 The Binti trilogy is on my list, but I haven't gotten to it yet.


Back when LeGuin was alive, you could drop her a letter with a self-addressed-stamped-envelope and she would send back a signed bookplate to the person of your choice. So, my wife got a personalized, signed copy of Left Hand of Darkness for Christmas a few years back.

[majorvices]

Back when LeGuin was alive, you could drop her a letter with a self-addressed-stamped-envelope and she would send back a signed bookplate to the person of your choice. So, my wife got a personalized, signed copy of Left Hand of Darkness for Christmas a few years back.

How cool is that? She was a fantastic writer. Wish I would have taken advantage of that.

[tommymorris]

Two series I have liked recently that I don’t see here:

Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson
Bobiverse by Dennis E Taylor

* Alanson is milking Expeditionary Force. So, it was great for the first 8-10 books. After that, the books are still good but I got bored.

[dbeechum]

Bobiverse by Dennis E Taylor

the Bobiverse is quite fun.

[tommymorris]

Bobiverse by Dennis E Taylor

the Bobiverse is quite fun.

Expeditionary Force has a character called Skippy the Magnificent who is hilarious. It’s a great military sci-fi that had me in stitches a lot.